At the Inglewood Unified School District (IUSD) Board of Education meeting on Wednesday, parents and teachers lined up to express their frustration with the state of education in the district. 

Under receivership, the district has struggled against declining enrollment and lack of autonomy. The district announced the closure of five schools in April, citing financial necessity. The IUSD Board of Education has been relegated to that of an advisory board under Administrator James Morris, who was appointed by the L.A. County Office of Education. Board members, in reality, currently have little power. 

Near the beginning of the meeting, board President Dr. Carliss McGhee announced the return of the YMCA to Inglewood. The response from the board and the community alike was elation. Speakers remembered when Inglewood used to have a Y, and celebrated McGhee’s work to bring the resource back. The new facility, reportedly to be built near district headquarters, will include a pool. McGhee spoke excitedly about the pool, noting that the closest community pool was 10 miles away at Vincent Park. “We bring a lot of stuff,” McGhee said. “It doesn’t always stick, but this is going to stick.”

The celebration felt rare for a district that has experienced several disappointments this school year. The inability to make things stick is a prevailing problem for a district with little independence.  

In addition to the school closures, Inglewood Unified School District is facing a shortage of nearly 80 teachers. Inglewood, among a long list of other California districts, was recently fined by the state for having improper teacher-to-student ratios in TK classes. 

During public comment, multiple residents spoke about the crisis. One speaker, Brenda Bell, was the community liaison for Highland Elementary for 24 years. The district plans to close Highland Elementary at the end of the next school year. “Education is being attacked. My teachers are an endangered species,” Bell said. To Bell, Highland was the “Jewel of Inglewood,” and its closure was a disservice to the community. 

The district has been trying to pay off a loan they received from the state for more than a decade. Their tight budget has resulted in the lowest teacher pay in the county. To make matters worse, Governor Newsom’s budget shortfall has thrown districts that depend on state grants into disarray. Newsom’s May budget revision was discussed during the meeting. Though it’s not as dire as it seemed in January, the board discussed the potential future ramifications of Newsom’s Proposition 98 maneuver. The complicated maneuver, achieved through modifying the formulas that determine funding for California schools, would have taken $12 Billion from Prop. 98 guaranteed to schools. 

The California Teacher Association (CTA) and the California School Boards Association threatened to sue the governor in response. As of this morning, CTA and the Governor’s office have struck a deal to lessen the cuts to Prop. 98. 

While discussing the state budgeting crisis, Administrator Morris noted that California’s education spending is already lower than other states. 

California has a GDP of 3.9 Trillion. It’s the fifth-largest economy in the world. The state spent around $13,000 per student in 2020. New York, whose GDP is 2.1 Trillion, spent more than $26,000 per student in the same year.  

McGhee praised the district’s ability to persevere despite the uncertainty and the underfunding in California. “We’re doing the best we can do with what we have,” she said.

“I beg to differ,” IUSD teacher John Hughes responded during public comment. He reported that 18 teachers were leaving the district in May, and he expected more to leave in June. “There’s a history of us coming together…We should never be settling on issues when we’re not meeting the needs of the students,” Hughes said. 

Hughes invited the board to review the salaries of district management and compare them with teacher salaries. “That’s a matter of priority.” The salaries IUSD management brought home in 2022 are notable. Erika Torres, the former administrator, made $250,000 that year. Principals and other management staff earned well above $100,000. The base pay for teachers in 2022 was $48,000, the lowest teacher salary in L.A. County.

Marita Alvarez, a special education teacher, agreed teachers aren’t being paid enough and argued the need for more teachers in the district will only continue to grow. 

Hughes spoke again near the end of public comment. “Twelve years into receivership, we’re playing the shell game. We cut 30 percent of students by closing five schools. We’ve yet to receive a concentrated study or data on why students are leaving and what we can do to resolve that. There are enough students in Inglewood to fill Inglewood schools, but two-thirds of them are going outside of Inglewood. Why isn’t that being addressed? If I know this information as an individual, why as a district can’t we come together and fix this?”

Photo by Jengod, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.