Tanya Ortiz Franklin campaigns for 2nd term
Incumbent in District 7 is being challenged by teacher-aerospace administrator Lydia Gutierrez
LAUSD board member Tanya Ortiz Franklin will try to win reelection in her South Bay district in a primary rematch against teacher Lydia Gutierrez.
Ortiz was elected to the District 7, which covers the South Bay and Harbor Area regions, in 2020, succeeding termed-out Richard Vladovic.
Patricia Castellanos in the November2020 election got about 57% of the vote. But during the March primary, Castellanos edged Ortiz, who finished in second place — about 3,200votes ahead of Gutierrez.
And now Ortiz and Gutierrez, a public school teacher and administrator in the aerospace industry, are the only two candidates for District 7 during the March 5 statewide primary.
The winner will represent District 7 on the board of education for the Los Angeles Unified School District. The seven-member board of education oversees policy for LAUSD, the second-largest district in the nation, with about 429,000 students.
Ortiz attended President Avenue Elementary School in Harbor
City and graduated from Narbonne High School, both in District 7. She received her bachelor's degree in political science from Columbia University in 2005 and a master's in elementary education at Loyola Marymount University while teaching sixth grade English and social studies at Stephen White Middle School in Carson.
The incumbent has pointed to her experience and to resolutions she has authored since being in office — Exploring Mastery-Based Learning and Grading, Closing the Digital Divide to Improve Distance and Hybrid Learning and Black Student Excellence
through Educator Diversity/Preparation and Retention.
That second resolution paid for more than 100,000 students to have high-speed broadband internet in their homes.
Her priorities, according to her campaign website, include retaining and recruiting effective staffers at all schools, improving student achievement and ensuring students have the social-emotional skills to be successful in the future. She also wants to increase social and emotional support for students and make sure budget decisions are “student-centered,” according to her website.
“Our school district’s most important responsibility,” she said on her website, “is to ensure more students are prepared to thrive in the college, career and life path of their choice.”
Gutierrez, meanwhile, has worked in the aerospace industry as an administrator and has been a public school teacher for more than 25 years.
She has two master’s degrees from Cal State Dominguez Hills and a bachelor’s from Pepperdine University. She has served on the Coastal SanPedro Neighborhood Council and is cochairperson for the California Teachers Association’s legislative committee on adult, alternative and career technical education.
The San Pedro resident is the great-granddaughter of a Terminal Island cannery worker, the granddaughter of migrant farm workers and the daughter of
a longshore worker.
Gutierrez has a multicultural bilingual teaching credential and lists her priorities as academic achievement, building fiscal responsibility and focusing on helping students become career ready and college bound. She also wants to create a strategic plan to “dramatically change how LAUSD does business” and improve academic success, according to her campaign website.
“I want our children to be successful in life,” Gutierrez said, “but without a quality education, they will not have a chance in today’s competitive global economy.”
Los Angeles School Board District 7
CANDIDATES » Tanya Ortiz Franklin (incumbent), Lydia Gutierrez.
TERM LENGTH » 4 years.
DISTRICT BOUNDARIES »
South L.A., Watts, Gardena, Carson, Lomita, Harbor City, Wilmington and San Pedro.
KEY ISSUES » Hiring quality staffers, budget decisions, and student safety and success.
2024 presidential primary election
ELECTION DAY » March 5. Polls close at 8 p.m.
EARLY VOTING » You can vote at the Los Angeles County registrar’s officeas of Feb. 5. The registrar’s headquarters are at 12400 Imperial Highway, Room 3002, in Norwalk. That office is open from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday to Friday.
VOTE-BY-MAIL » Ballots began going out Feb.1. You can submit ballots by mail in three ways: by mailing them to the registrar’s office (ballots by mail include return envelopes with the correct address and postage already included); by placing them in an official drop box; or by dropping them off at any county vote center.
VBM DEADLINE » Ballots by mail that are sent via mail must arrive no later than seven days after the election, but they must be
postmarked by March 5.
The deadline to place ballots by mail in a drop box or deliver them to a vote center is 8 p.m. on Election Day.
VOTE CENTERS » Vote Centers open 10 days before Election Day. This year, that’s Feb. 24. You can vote at any vote center in Los Angeles County. Prior to Election Day, the Vote Centers will be open from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. On Election Day, they will be open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m.
ABOUT THE BALLOTS » In California, the order races are listed on ballots goes from local to federal, meaning the nominees for president will be listed at the bottom. Except for presidential races, California’s primaries for “partisan” offices — now known as “voter-nominated offices” have a top-two system.
That means the top two vote getters in a given race advance to the general election, regardless of political party.
To find a drop box or Vote Center and for more information, go to lavote.gov.