In Long Beach, California, Felton Williams and the TALB Face Off

On April 8th, 2008 Long Beach, California voters will once again trudge to the polling boxes for the primary nominating election. Four seats on the Long Beach City Council have incumbent candidates, as do two seats on the Board of Trustees. Another election that receives far too little attention is the one which decides the fate of two incumbent member of the Board of Education for the Long Beach Unified School District. At issue are the seat of district 4's John Meyer and district 2's Felton Williams.

Granted, school board elections almost always lack the glitz and glamour their much more publicized and politicized cousins enjoy, yet 2008 promises a refreshing difference and the spotlight will quite possibly shine on the fourth district in general and Felton Williams in particular.

Mr. Williams was first elected to the Long Beach school board in 2004 when he proclaimed to be the candidate who would ensure that the school district would continue on its progress to add more and more facilities which were issued the privilege of being named a California Distinguished School. He is quoted on his website as stating that not only would he be instrumental in easing overcrowding but partnerships were to be forged with the business community as well as standards raised to such an extent that parents would once again choose to have their children attend neighborhood schools instead of magnet school outside the district or private schools.

Mr. Felton's star continued to rise when he was elected president of the Long Beach Board of Education in July of 2007. Yet there is trouble in paradise and while Long Beach schools may be enjoying a few face lifts here and there, even the positive spin that news reporters and spokes people want to put on concerns raised by teachers cannot completely erase the pause the careful voter must experience when the hand hovers once more over the little dot that determines Mr. Felton's professional future.

Take for example the somewhat alarming note The Grunion Gazette's staff writer Carla Collado took in her 07-19-07 article entitled TALB Reveals Results of Teacher Survey when she noted that one third of surveyed teachers raised concerns about dismal student access to registered school nurses. Indeed, the numbers are alarming when you consider that only 73 registered nurses are serving a total of 92 schools, which roughly breaks down to one nurse on call for every 1,000 students, some of whom are considered severely disabled.

Adding to the discord surrounding Mr. Williams' reelection is the fact that CST Results are not as stellar as perhaps one might have hoped. Sure, there is an overall upward trend which seems to be mostly concentrated on the lowers grades - English language arts showed an increase of seven percent in proficiency levels, bringing it from 2006's 48% to 2007's 55% - while the upper grades do not share this rapid trend and actually in some cases still rate behind the national average; for example, sixth grade only saw a one percent increase in English language arts proficiency bringing it to a 40% rating in 2007, yet the national average is 42%; more alarming is the reversal of math proficiency which declined from 2006's 37% to 36% in 2007, this limping six percent behind the national average.

Discontent has been brewing for a while now between members of the Long Beach Teachers' Association and Mr. Williams. In a little publicized incident allegations of stonewalling against him were made by Stevenson Elementary's Elizabeth Martinez, who cites several examples to support her assertion. Stevenson Elementary, a school that is noted for its absence of teacher morale, woefully lags behind the district as well as the state in English language arts by only having 28% proficiency as opposed to the state's average of 42%, with NRT reading scores actually declining from a 25% figure in 2004 to only 22% in 2006.

Yet the controversy does not end there, and Mr. Williams' flip remarks about rodent infestations at a local elementary school were not well received when it was reported in October of 2006 by the TALB advocate that he considered rodents such as rats to be acceptable if they could be minimized or the populations curtailed rather than exterminated.

Whether the strong opposition the Teacher Association of Long Beach has to Felton Williams will trickle down to the voter who most likely is neither aware of the power struggles that mar the school board's day to day operations or the problems that face students in the LBUSD, nor able to rely on adequate publicity of these finding in the mainstream press, is debatable at best. Instead, it is highly likely that the city council elections will most likely hog the spot light once again - much to the detriment of the school board.