This guide was produced in partnership between the LAist and Long Beach Post newsrooms. See all our guides at LBPost.com/elections.
What’s at stake in this race
Long Beach Unified School District is one of the largest school districts in the state and the second-largest in Los Angeles County. This election, two seats on the five-person governing board are up for grabs.
Three candidates have entered the race for the District 5 board seat, which represents the airport and the areas north and east of it — including Los Altos and parts of Lakewood.
Incumbent Diana Craighead is president of the board and its longest-serving member. She has seniority and the backing of the teachers union but will be up against two newcomers: Maureen Flaherty, a special education teacher at a local charter school, and Sara Socheata Pol-Lim, former executive director of the Long Beach nonprofit United Cambodian Community.
What does the Long Beach Unified School Board do?
- Employs, evaluates and works with the superintendent. The board also sets the policy for hiring other personnel.
- Establishes fiscal priorities. The board adopts the budget and the Local Control Accountability Plan (a three-year plan to connect the budget to student priorities). The board also oversees issues related to facilities and the bond money spent to pay for construction and upgrades.
- Approves adoption of the curriculum.
- Develops and adopts board policies. These policies govern everything from graduation requirements to safety to equity.
- Sets the direction for the district. This school board has prioritized equity and advancing educational outcomes for all students. Since 2020, this board has taken a “student outcome-focused governance” approach, which means board members make decisions based on how they will directly affect students.
You might know the school board from
Policies the board has passed
- In the fall, school board members passed a cellphone ban that went into effect across the district this semester.
- Board members also changed how the district approaches safety by giving more power to school safety officers (to avoid involving outside law enforcement) and offering diversion to students who commit small crimes.
Changes to curriculum
- Board members recently relaxed graduation requirements, mandating three rather than four years of math. They also added personal finance and ethnic studies requirements, in compliance with state law.
Approved cuts
- To ameliorate the district’s $70 million deficit, the board approved a cascade of cuts to mental health support, library staff, parent-support workers, nurses and hundreds of teachers.
Here are some things the school board doesn’t do
- Board members don’t oversee day-to-day operations in schools and classrooms. That’s the job of teachers, administrators and school-site staff.
- Hire, fire or manage district employees — aside from the superintendent, the only employee of the board. The school board oversees and evaluates the superintendent, and currently is leading the search process for the next superintendent.
- The board sets the vision and policies for the school district while the superintendent implements those policies and oversees the daily operations across the district.
Fast facts about the Long Beach Unified School Board
- School board members serve four-year terms and have no term limits. Some candidates running, including Diana Craighead and Juan Benitez, have served three consecutive terms and are running for their fourth.
- Board members run as nonpartisan candidates, though the board has historically tilted liberal, based on policies and voting records.
- In 2024, each board member received a salary of $18,000, not including benefits, according to the state controller’s database of government compensation.
What’s on the agenda for next term
Long Beach Unified has had a tough year. The district is operating at a large deficit due to declining enrollment, rising costs and not enough state and federal funding. As a result, the school board has already authorized tens of millions of dollars in program and position cuts to balance its budget. And the board will have to make more tough decisions next year…