The Culver City Democratic Club held a forum for CCUSD candidates to answer questions from the public Sunday night. Moderated by Westside Voice Education Reporter Hannah Bowlus, candidates were given a series of questions related to safety, mental health, and other topics important to Culver City residents.

While the forum was open to all five of the candidates running for the seats that will be up for grabs in November, only Andrew Lachman and Sameen Ahmadnia attended the forum. After brief opening statements, each candidate was given a chance to answer eight questions on a wide range of topics that were provided by the Democratic Club.

Both Lachman and Ahmadnia agreed on a variety of issues throughout the night. Each emphasized the importance of including English as a Second Language (ESL) families in school programs and decision-making. Lachman emphasized advisory committee representation, recalling his time in the Local Control and Advisory Plan Committee where the benefits of representation were seen.

“We had one English learning family, and their input was invaluable,” Lachman said of his time on the LCAP, “But we need to do more with that to help our black and brown students, those who are working, and those who don’t have the time to be able to do that.” 

Ahmadnia recalled an initiative to keep a vice principal at La Ballona and how she heard time and time again that ESL families didn’t feel represented. She doesn’t believe there is a “one size fits all” solution to help all marginalized groups, but said that creating and building relationships with these communities would be one of her priorities.

Safety was also an important priority for both forum attendees. Lachman proposed using bond money to upgrade the security features at schools, proposing options like scale-proof fences at CCUSD campuses. He emphasized that officers did not want to be on campus, but still wanted CCPD and on-campus security to coordinate so that security could respond without police needing to be present.

Each also talked about the interconnectivity between safety and student mental health, with Ahmadnia proposing to implement the Multi-Tiered System of Supports (MTSS) at CCUSD schools. MTSS is a continuum system where challenges to students are proactively identified and addressed through multiple layers of support figures at a school. 

To accomplish this, teachers and staff would go through additional training to provide them with the tools to identify students in need of additional support.

“Are our teachers sufficiently prepared to address these mental health needs that we’re anticipating?” Ahmadnia pondered in her remarks.

Mental health itself was a major topic, particularly in the wake of a recent hate incident at a Culver City elementary school. Both candidates were asked how they confront gender-based hate as part of the questioning, with each espousing similar views on how to tackle the problem.

Ahmadnia hopes to implement educational tools as early as Transitional Kindergarten, arguing that giving this information to kids early will make being exposed to those in the LGBTQ+ community at a later age “almost unremarkable.”

Identifying those at risk as quickly as possible is also a key factor for Ahmadnia, and she also proposed a reevaluation of bullying intervention strategies in the district.

Lachman emphasized similar points about educating students and protecting those at risk, noting that it can be difficult for students with parents from certain cultural backgrounds to have the important conversations that shape their identity.

“We need to protect those students and make sure that they are safe and feel that school is a place where they can express themselves and find their identities and learn about themselves,” Lachman said.

Lachman also spoke about helping the young women in CCUSD schools get into STEM-related courses and career paths. He recalled a time at a camp where his daughter stood her ground when she was being pushed to abandon a video game design class for one that had more girls in it, saying that shouldn’t happen.

“There are so many socio-economic pressures to push girls out of science,” Lachman said, “and we need to fight that.”

The topic of de-tracking classes — or replacing honors and regular courses with mixed-ability classes — also came up, with Ahmadnia supporting the idea. However, Lachman believes that the district implemented detracking incorrectly, bringing up New Rochelle, New York as an example of a successful de-tracking program.

“Unfortunately, the way we implemented that this time is we went straight to getting rid of the program,” Lachman said, “but we didn’t do any of the follow through in order to make sure that this works.”

But both he and Ahmadnia agreed that the research supported the idea that these de-tracked, mixed-ability classes were beneficial to students in a variety of ways. Ahmadnia emphasized a need for providing additional professional development and support to teachers to give them the ability to manage a classroom with a wide range of academic abilities and needs. 

Both candidates also supported workforce housing and acknowledged the challenges associated with providing it in a city that is not abundant in real estate like Culver City. Lachmann noted though that workforce housing should only be pursued if teachers wanted it, and Ahmadnia also emphasized the importance of working with teachers and other staff if workforce housing does become a consideration.

Environmental issues were also brought up, particularly the Green New Deal — which both candidates expressed support for. Ahmadnia explicitly said she fully supported the Green New Deal, and also hoped to create a fully solar power-generating CCUSD campus along with making other improvements to improve the district’s carbon footprint. She argued that this would save money in the long term and serve as an educational example of environmentally friendly power sources.

“We should focus on reducing the asphalt and increasing green spaces,” Ahmadnia said.

Lachman did not directly say he “fully supported” the Green New Deal as Ahmadnia did, but said that he would work with Sustainability Committee members to implement Green New Deal policies. 

Public transit was an important topic for Lachman in his remarks. He spoke of the desire to improve accessibility and safe use of bike routes, as well as providing TAP cards to students to use local bus and metro lines.

“Public transit access is important from an equity standpoint, but is also a great way to reduce our carbon footprint,” Lachman said.

The Culver City Democratic Club will vote on Wednesday for the candidates that they will endorse, with the results expected to be announced Friday.

A full transcript of the answers given at Sunday’s forum can be found here. (A/N: Quotes have been edited for length and clarity)

Photo by the author.