PTA group to evaluate city council candidates
By Daily Press staff
The powerful parents’ group that leveraged City Hall this spring for millions of extra education dollars has picked its favorites for the local school board.
The Community for Excellent Public Schools announced it will back incumbents Dr. José Escarce and Maria Leon-Vazquez, alongside education activist Dr. Kathy Wisnicki. Parent and Pico neighborhood activist Ana Jara failed to win the group’s support.
All four candidates are running for three open seats on the seven-member Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District school board, which oversees the 13,000-student district.
It’s unclear what exactly the CEPS backing will entail, but the group is expected to fund at least one election mailer that will be sent to residents’ homes.
CEPS leaders said in a statement that their endorsements followed a month-long evaluation and the results reflect strides being made in the district.
CEPS, from page 1 “CEPS believes the current (school board) is making significant progress during financially difficult times,” the statement said. “This is evidenced by increasing test scores particularly for English language learners and students on the bottom end of the achievement gap... CEPS strongly supports this progress and applauds the efforts of both board president Dr. José Escarce and immediate past board president Maria Leon-Vazquez in shepherding and overseeing these efforts.”
Leon-Vazquez also was credited for her work overseeing and improving special education in the district. Wisnicki was praised for her past experiences.
“Wisnicki has a Ph.D. from UCLA in educational research and applied statistics, and was awarded a postdoctoral fellowship to study at-risk children,” the statement said. “She has also been a dedicated, thoughtful, courageous and effective supporter of all our public schools.
“She co-chaired both Measure EE and Measure S, she is a former PTA president, serves on the PTA Council, is a member of the district’s financial oversight committee, and has been a political force in Malibu, helping to found a teen center, working to elect a youth-friendly Malibu City Council and successfully lobbying for increased city of Malibu funding for our public schools.”
Before winning the CEPS endorsements, candidates submitted answers to a long list of questions and on Sept. 20 participated in a candidate forum at Franklin Elementary School. CEPS leaders said they then analyzed the candidates’ backgrounds and qualifications in respect to the challenges currently facing the school board before making a final determination.
CEPS is expected to release its assessment of City Council candidates this week, but will not weigh in on the race for three open seats on the college board. Assessments are unlike endorsements because there may be more positive assessments than there are open seats — there are more than a dozen candidates running for four open seats on the City Council this November.
A powerful nucleus of parents and education activists with broad support in the community, CEPS’ goal is “To promote a shared community vision for excellence in our public schools that includes early childhood and post-secondary education; to evaluate and pursue a range of short and long term funding measures through state, city and school district policies and elections; to identify and support issues that will support education and public schools, including early childhood education, afterschool programs, and post-secondary public education; to increase public awareness of the value and uniqueness of our public schools; (and) to promote accountability for high quality public education by public institutions and public officials.”
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on October 5, 2004. Read the original PDF.