Lindsay Carlson, an information governance attorney, is one of three candidates running for the Culver City Unified Board of Education this November. She spoke to Westside Voice about her campaign for “excellence, empathy, engagement, and ethics,” and how her political and legal experience can benefit the district. 

She and her husband chose to live in Culver City for its excellent schools, and she quickly became involved in Culver City Unified School District (CCUSD) once her child started attending transitional kindergarten in 2022, first serving on the El Rincon site council and then joining the PTA at El Marino. She has regularly attended and participated in public comment at CCUSD board meetings for the past two years. Over time, she connected with a group of parents who had grown increasingly concerned with district decisions, leading to what Carlson summarized as a disconnect between community stakeholders. 

“My main priority is to bring the community back together again,” Carlson said. She wants to rebuild the district’s relationship with community members who have lost faith and promote “school safety and academic vigor.”  

Carlson, who is endorsed by both the Culver City Federation of Teachers (CCFT) and the CCUSD Association of Classified Employees, said her advocacy for CCUSD staff and managerial experience enable her to make fiscally responsible choices while adequately valuing the workers who run the district. 

CCFT President Ray Long said Carlson solidified her commitment to supporting staff early on, reaching out to the union before her campaign began to hear their concerns. Long cited Carlson’s political organizing experience – Carlson is a founding member of the Heart of L.A. Democratic Club and involved with the Los Angeles County Democratic Party Central Committee, among other organizations – and years of participation in the district as reasons why the union’s political action committee ultimately voted to endorse her in June. “We want to be able to work with board members that really have our back,” Long said. 

Though a “limited budget” looms over the district, Carlson said there are meaningful ways to mitigate the potential harms of austerity. One part of that is being clear on district priorities. “In a time of deficit spending, you have to look at what’s essential to the work,” she said. 

Carlson noted that the district in recent years had fallen short of the requirement that 55 percent of the budget be spent in the classroom. The district met that requirement this year, but Carlson argued there was more work to be done. 

“It should be higher,” she said. “Given what the function of a district is – to educate kids.”

Carlson said some perceived the district as “top-heavy,” with high salaries going to centralized or administrative positions not directly related to daily schooling. Carlson stressed that she wasn’t advocating for laying anyone off, but was curious to see what tweaks could be made when the district lost people with high salaries to attrition, and what roles could be combined or rehired at a lower salary level. 

Carlson currently manages a staff and previously oversaw the work of countless associates as a Big Law partner. “I’m very interested in making sure [my staff are] well compensated and feel valued in the organization,” she said.

While the budget might prevent the district from giving CCUSD staff exactly what they want in negotiations, she said it was important to negotiate earnestly and receptively. “If you have to deliver hard news, make sure that you’re doing so in a respectful way.” 

Another aspect of her fiscal strategy is exploring revenue-generating opportunities in collaboration with the city. Carlson has received endorsements from the Culver City Chamber of Commerce and current city council members Albert Vera, Dan O’Brien, and Göran Eriksson. 

Beyond organizing and leadership experience, her 20 years of legal work also offer practical benefits to the board. Information governance law, she explained, is concerned primarily with ethics, privacy, and information security. Working for large law firms has given her the opportunity to learn the intricacies of legal compliance. The current school board lacks a lawyer in their ranks, and school boards don’t often have a lawyer present during their meetings, forcing board members to “make decisions on the fly.” Carlson has challenged the board based on legal compliance multiple times and thinks the issue could be resolved with her perspective on the board. 

When Measure E, a facilities bond for Culver City Unified, was being discussed, Carlson was among some community members who thought the measure should be placed on the November ballot. Carlson was on the Bond Feasibility Committee where she and others voiced concerns about placing the bond on the March ballot, fearing it was rushed and wanting to wait until November to put it to a vote. The board put the bond on the March ballot.

Carlson supported Measure E in March even though she felt that the timing was wrong. The bond passed by about 62 percent – it needed 55 percent to pass. Carlson referenced the passage of Measure CC, another CCUSD facilities bond, in 2014. Measure CC passed by 76 percent. The difference, she said, illustrates a widening divide in the community.

Carlson said school safety has improved since, largely due to a newfound stability in leadership at the two schools. Part of the issue, she recognized, is visibility. Students’ ability to film fights, technology which is still relatively novel in the grand scheme of things, might contribute to the fear that schools are becoming less safe. “We have to make sure we aren’t blowing stuff out of proportion,” she said. 

Still, Carlson believes incidents deserve attention and intervention. New leadership at the schools has helped “cultivate a sense of pride in the students,” while “making sure when [students] are doing something that’s problematic and harming other kids, they’re disciplined appropriately.” She has reservations about over-policing students, but is “fully supportive of the district collaborating appropriately with CCPD and particularly their School Resource Officer.” 

Supporting CCUSD staff and students through facilities improvements, expanding academic opportunities, and strengthening special education in the district are also leading issues of her campaign.

Carlson has secured a long list of endorsements, including Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, Representative Ted Lieu, and the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor.

Photo courtesy of Lindsay Carlson.