by Howard Blume | LA Times/L.A. NOW
February 6, 2010 | 7:53 pm
Ballot counting began Saturday afternoon in Los Angeles for an election over school-reform plans; results will be available by Monday but might not be released until Friday, officials said. A delay in releasing the results is likely to create yet another controversy over this school-reform strategy.
The purpose of the unprecedented election was to give parents, students, school employees and others -- each voting group tallied separately -- the chance to express a preference regarding who should run 12 long-struggling schools and 18 new ones. The process is part of a groundbreaking school-control plan approved in August by the Los Angeles Unified Board of Education. The plan will affect nearly 40,000 students.
The main competitors are groups of teachers -- often with the backing of union officials and district administrators -- and private charter operators. Charter schools are independently managed and not bound by some rules that govern traditional schools, including union contracts. L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa also is trying to claim more schools for his nonprofit education organization.
The first round of polling occurred Tuesday, and voting concluded Saturday. The results are not binding, either for Supt. Ramon C. Cortines, who will make his own recommendations, or for the school board, which will make selections later this month.
Cortines on Saturday countermanded plans to post results as they became available. He preferred not to have partial -- and possibly inaccurate -- tallies made public, said his special assistant Ana Fernandez.
Results might be withheld until the end of the week, at the district’s request, said officials with the League of Women Voters, which conducted the election.
From the start, Friday has been the deadline for certified results, but unofficial counts are typically made public in an election as soon as they are ready, said Raquel Beltran, the league’s executive director. She said unofficial tallies would probably be ready Monday.
Friday also is the scheduled day for the release of professional evaluations of each reform plan. So if they are released Friday, the election results will have to share the spotlight with related news.
The notion of a mandated delay bothered some who were observing the counting at the Chamber of Commerce building west of downtown.
“The district should have nothing to hide,” said Joel Jordan, director of special projects for United Teachers Los Angeles, the teachers union. "The public has a right to know the results as soon as possible.”
From the start, the school-control process has been both celebrated and maligned. The elections prompted additional complaints over electioneering, alleged voter intimidation and voting rules that left critics questioning the validity of the results.
●●smf’s 2¢: CONTROLLING THE RESULTS
A writer to 4LAKids writes: “Reforming the politics of education is not the same as reforming education.” Truer words have never been written, we are currently fixated on the process and politics of reform and not on the outcome for kids.
On Tuesday The Daily News reported:
Official results of the districtwide advisory votes will be presented to the LAUSD on Feb. 12. Community members are welcome to visit the league's headquarters at 3303 Wilshire Blvd. to get an unofficial count Saturday [Feb 6] afternoon. [http://bit.ly/9SYifj]
There is a quantum difference between “community members are welcome to visit…” and embargoing the results.
One is transparent – the other is how they do it it Afghanistan.
The LA LWV HQ is 3303 Wilshire Boulevard, Suite 310 – and eagle-eyed 4LAKids readers will recognize that address as also the HQ of UTLA – United Teachers Los Angeles owns the building, UTLA Plaza, and rents office space to the LWV.
Apparently – and this is unconfirmed – when Superintendent Cortines – or someone well connected to to 24th floor of Beaudry (LAUSD HQ) - heard that the vote count would be held at 3303 Wilshire they insisted on a change of venue – to the Chamber of Commerce building at 350 South Bixel Street – in the very shadow of LAUSD Beaudry - a building where LAUSD is a tenant.
It’s nice to know that someone at LAUSD is trying to keep up (or avoid) superficial appearances of fairness and/or the taint of conflict of interest – but at the same time manipulating where the vote is counted approaches the urban legend of the Bush v. Gore Florida Vote Count & the Screenplay of the 1940’s movie Key Largo:
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