Andrew Thomas (California)
Andrew Thomas was a candidate for the District 5 seat on the Los Angeles Unified School District Board of Education in California. He ran against one incumbent and one challenger in the primary election on March 3, 2015. He did not receive enough votes to advance to the general election held on May 19, 2015.[1][2][3][4]
Biography
Thomas grew up in Reno, Nev., but moved to Los Angeles to attend the University of Southern California in 1984. He later went on to earn a doctoral degree in urban schooling from the University of California at Los Angeles' School of Education. His work experience includes setting up computer labs and communications centers for the African National Congress (ANC) in Zimbabwe, helping to get computers and networks into schools and community centers in the U.S. and teaching statistics, research methods and educational policy at Walden University.[5]
Thomas and his wife have two children in high school at the Los Angeles Unified School District. He co-founded Silverlake Independent JCC. At the time of his candidacy, Thomas was serving as the ESC-East at-large representative on the Los Angeles Unified School District Parent Advisory Committee, and he has also served on the school site councils for Franklin Elementary School, King Middle School and Marshall High School.[5]
Elections
2015
Four of the seven seats on the Los Angeles Unified School District Board of Education were up for primary election on March 3, 2015. Only one candidate, unopposed District 1 incumbent George J. McKenna III, received more than 50 percent of the votes cast in the primary. Because of this, he won his seat outright, and the top two vote-getters in Districts 3, 5 and 7 advanced to the general election on May 19, 2015.
Incumbents Tamar Galatzan, Bennett Kayser and Richard A. Vladovic from Districts 3, 5 and 7, respectively, received enough votes to advance to the general election. They each faced at least two challengers in the primary. In District 3, Galatzan faced five challengers, Elizabeth Badger Bartels, Filiberto Gonzalez, Ankur Patel, Carl J. Petersen and Scott Mark Schmerelson. She and Schmerelson faced each other again in the general election. Kayser and challenger Ref Rodriguez defeated challenger Andrew Thomas to continue on to the District 5 general election. In the District 7 primary, Vladovic ran against challengers Euna Anderson and Lydia Gutierrez. Gutierrez received enough votes to advance to the general election with Vladovic.
In the general election, both Galatzan and Kayser were unseated by their challengers. Schmerelson won the District 3 seat, and Rodriguez was elected to the District 5 seat. In District 7, Vladovic defeated Gutierrez to secure another term on the board.
Results
| Los Angeles Unified School District, District 5 Primary Election, 5-year term, 2015 |
||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Candidate | Vote % | Votes | |
| Nonpartisan |  Ref Rodriguez |
38.6% | 10,355 | |
| Nonpartisan | Bennett Kayser Incumbent |
35.5% | 9,510 | |
| Nonpartisan | Andrew Thomas | 25.9% | 6,946 | |
| Total Votes | 26,811 | |||
| Source: Los Angeles City Clerk's Office, "Primary Nominating Election: Official Election Results," accessed March 23, 2015 | ||||
Funding
Thomas reported $101,508.00 in contributions and $36,715.70 in expenditures to the Los Angeles City Ethics Commission, which left his campaign with $64,792.30 as of February 25, 2015.[6]
Endorsements
Thomas was endorsed by the Los Angeles Times and Los Angeles District 4 Council Member Tom LaBonge. He also received endorsements from a number of community members. A full list of his supporters can be found here.[7][8][9]
Campaign themes
2015
Ballotpedia survey responses
Thomas participated in Ballotpedia's 2015 survey of school board candidates. The following sections display his responses to the survey questions. When asked what his top priority would be if elected, the candidate made the following statement:
| “ | Focusing on a strategic plan for the implementation of Local Control Funding, common core and smart balanced assessment to achieve our goals of graduation and proficiency for all students.[10] | ” |
| —Andrew Thomas (2015)[11] | ||
Ranking the issues
The candidate was asked to rank the following issues by importance in the school district, with 1 being the most important and 7 being the least important. This table displays this candidate's rankings from most to least important:
| Education policy |
|---|
 |
Click here to learn more about education policy in California. |
| Education on the ballot |
| Issue importance ranking | |
|---|---|
| Candidate's ranking | Issue |
| Expanding school choice options | |
| Balancing or maintaining the district's budget | |
| Expanding arts education | |
| Expanding career-technical education | |
| Improving college readiness | |
| Improving education for special needs students | |
| Closing the achievement gap | |
Positions on the issues
The candidate was asked to answer 10 questions from Ballotpedia regarding significant issues in education and the school district. The questions are in the left column, and the candidate's responses are in the right column of the following table:
| Question | Response |
|---|---|
| "They should be implemented, but modifications are required, not in the standards, but in the curricula and testing programs associated with them. More professional development is needed." | |
| "All candidates agree that no new charters in Los Angeles" | |
| "No" | |
| "Yes" | |
| "More resources should be spent on low achieving, low-income schools that have high needs." | |
| "Practices such as positive behavior strategies should be used before expulsion is considered." | |
| "Make sure there are high quality administrators and teachers. High need schools should have school psychologists and/or counselors as appropriate. There may be mental and physical health needs as well. Basically, it should be all-hands-on deck for the highest needs schools." | |
| "No" | |
| "A, B & C. Teachers should be terminated if they don’t improve after receiving coaching and additional supports, or if they commit egregious acts."* | |
| "Create a school liaison officer program, create relations between the school board member's office and neighborhood councils and other community groups." | |
| *Note: The "A, B & C" options Thomas referred to were the following: A: Set up a mentorship program for the underperforming teacher with a more experienced teacher in the district, B: Offer additional training options and C: Put underperforming teachers on a probationary period while they seek to improve. | |
Candidate website
Thomas highlighted the following issues on his campaign website:
| “ | Our School Board is in a crisis of leadership.
In just the last few years our schools have been subjected to an embarrassingly blundered and expensive rollout of the new scheduling software (MiSiS) that resulted in thousands of students being forced to waste up to six weeks of instructional time, and has cost the taxpayers $100 million more than expected. The schools have also endured a poorly planned integration of iPads into the classroom, costing $130 million so far and resulting in an investigation by the FBI. It does not take long to see that the school board is in desperate need of new leadership. It is a critical time for the district--a new superintendent needs to be hired, new standards need to be taught, and new tests need to be rolled out--all under the shadow of a looming $300 million deficit. The top-down, closed door decision making of this board has resulted in waste, ineffectiveness and worse. Our children cannot afford another term of the games the board plays with their education. Andrew Thomas is running to give the communities of District 5 a real advocate on the Board of Education. How long will we tolerate the Board’s habit of ignoring parents and operating behind closed doors? These games have already cost generations of graduating classes the high quality education they deserve. It’s time we put this to a stop! If elected, Andrew will begin giving control back to the community by:
|
” |
| —Andrew Thomas' campaign website (2015)[12] | ||
Recent news
The link below is to the most recent stories in a Google news search for the terms Andrew Thomas Los Angeles Unified School District. These results are automatically generated from Google. Ballotpedia does not curate or endorse these articles.
See also
- Los Angeles Unified School District, California
- Los Angeles Unified School District elections (2015)
- Clean sweep for school board incumbents... (March 4, 2015)
- Embroiled incumbents see differing outcomes in May 19 school board elections across five states (May 21, 2015)
External links
- Los Angeles Unified School District
- Campaign website
- Campaign Facebook page
- Twitter page
- 2015 Smart Voter profile
Footnotes
- ↑ Los Angeles City Clerk's Office, "General Information for Candidates, Los Angeles City Elections, 2015," accessed January 13, 2015
- ↑ Los Angeles City Clerk's Office, "2015 Primary Nominating Election Candidates," accessed January 13, 2015
- ↑ Smart Voter, “Board Member; Los Angeles Unified School District; District 5 Voter Information,” accessed February 3, 2015
- ↑ Los Angeles City Clerk, “Election Night Results (Unofficial), March 3, 2015,” accessed March 4, 2015
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 Andrew Thomas for LAUSD Board of Education, "Biography," accessed February 4, 2015
- ↑ Los Angeles City Ethics Commission, "2015 City and LAUSD Elections," accessed April 13, 2015
- ↑ Smart Voter, "Andrew Thomas: Candidate for Board Member; Los Angeles Unified School District; District 5," accessed February 4, 2015
- ↑ Andrew Thomas for LAUSD Board of Education, "Vote Pledge," accessed February 4, 2015
- ↑ LA School Report, "A quick look at who’s endorsing whom for LAUSD board," February 9, 2015
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source. Any inconsistencies are attributable to the original source.
- ↑ Ballotpedia School Board Candidate Survey, 2015
- ↑ Andrew Thomas for LAUSD Board of Education, "Issues," accessed February 4, 2015
| 2015 Los Angeles Unified School District Elections | |
| Los Angeles County, California | |
| Election date: | Primary election - March 3, 2015 General election - May 19, 2015 |
| Candidates: | District 1: • Incumbent, George J. McKenna III District 3: • Incumbent, Tamar Galatzan • Elizabeth Badger Bartels • Filiberto Gonzalez • Ankur Patel • Carl J. Petersen • Scott Mark Schmerelson District 5: • Incumbent, Bennett Kayser • Ref Rodriguez • Andrew Thomas District 7: • Incumbent, Richard A. Vladovic • Euna Anderson • Lydia Gutierrez |
| Important information: | What was at stake? • Key deadlines • Additional elections on the ballot |
