Whereas, the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) School Board’s first priority should be to represent the more than 640,000 students enrolled within its boundaries;
Whereas, scarce education funds should be directly spent on students, not promoting the re-election of School Board Members;
Whereas, a complaint filed against former Board Member Tamar Galatzan disclosed that the LAUSD had printed a double-sided, full-color brochure that included language directly lifted from Galatzan’s campaign literature;
Whereas, the same complaint noted that Galatzan used the LAUSD phone system to send robocalls to District parents invited them to a community meeting that she scheduled to compete with a community forum that was supposed to include all District 3 candidates;
Whereas, Galatzan held that community meeting on LAUSD property;
Whereas, both current and former Board members have included their Twitter handles and other social media links on material printed by the District and on their pages on the District’s Web Site;
Whereas, both current and former Board members have blocked stakeholders from viewing these pages;
Whereas, the California Charter School Association and their supporters spent nearly $2.3 million in the 2015 LAUSD elections including ethically challenged marketing materials against Bennett Kayser.
Resolved, LAUSD funds may not be spent on promoting School Board members or their accomplishments;
Resolved, LAUSD funds may not be spent on mailings, robocalls or meetings with constituents in the 90 days prior to an election in which they are competing;
Resolved, School Board members are prohibited from using the District’s email system to send mass emails in the 90 days prior to an election in which they are competing;
Resolved, a mass email is defined as an essentially identical email to more than one hundred recipients either in one email blast or in one sent separately to a total of more than one hundred recipients;
Resolved, LAUSD facilities may not be used to promote School Board members;
Resolved, that the members of the LAUSD School Board recognize that promoting a social media address on District literature and websites makes that account an extension of LAUSD resources;
Resolved, that LAUSD School Board members may not block stakeholders from viewing or commenting on any social media account that is promoted using LAUSD resources;
Resolved, that LAUSD School Board members must recognize campaign donations in the previous election the same as any personal interest.