Dear friends and partners, 

There is so much to be grateful for as we head into Thanksgiving week. As I celebrate my first Thanksgiving as a father this year, I am more in awe than ever of the support our families and staff provide to LAUSD’s children. I continue to meet with parents across Board District 4 to find ways to make their lives easier, including with a resolution that passed unanimously this week to make it easier for parent and community groups to find and use District spaces, and an ongoing survey of parents to implement my previous resolution to digitize cumbersome paper forms. 

I’m also grateful that our students continue to show academic gains, like the test scores the Board reviewed this week showing the progress of English Learners significantly outpacing the state. And I was grateful to see so much joy as schools across the District celebrated Kindness Week last week. 

While grateful, I’m not satisfied. There is still so much work to do, and while the District faces challenging budgetary conversations in the coming months, I remain committed to keeping students centered in my decision-making. 

Onward,