Dr. Gloria Zuurveen Announces Run for LAUSD School Board District 1

PACE NEWS WIRE
Dr. Gloria Zuurveen has decided that it is a better choice to run for the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) Board Seat District #1 in 2024 rather than her initial announcement that she is running for State Senator in March 2024. She officially announces her run to continue fighting for parent and students and especially Black students, who after all these years, are still behind when it comes to closing the achievement gap. According to 2022 Smarter Balanced test results, only 30% of Black students are meeting English language arts standards and 16% are meeting math standards, compared with 47% and 33%, respectively, for all students statewide. At LAUSD, 31% of Black students met English language arts standards and 17% met math standards.

Dr. Zuurveen said she is running for the Board of Education seat #1 because she feel compelled to take action to stop the business as usual pattern of operation which is so prevalent at LAUSD.

She said she is running because she feel that her qualification as a parent, grandparent, community leader and founder and owner of a successful business and brand in Los Angeles for almost 30 years gives her the  necessary tools to transfer needed skills to serve as a Change Agent on the Board of Education. She said she wants to set the pace for Parents, Action, Coalition, and Education.

This is her motto and the name of the nonprofit organization that she founded 30 years ago to assist in combating the willful neglect by  teachers and administrators in the public school setting.

PACE, she said, is one the first parent organization formed to help parents, especially Black parents, advocate on behalf of their children about issues and concerns affecting their children in the public schools. Since its inception, she said, they have assisted parents in navigating through the bureaucracy of LAUSD. PACE has been instrumental in educating parents on how to take necessary action to effect systemic changes in their children’s schools. PACE, over these last 30 years, has joined with  other community and faith-based organizations to help parents with needed resources to educate their children. This is why she is running because today there are still many resources that are available to parents for the education of children at LAUSD, yet, due to the bureaucracy and top administration, many of the resources fail to reach those who need them most, like children with special needs and foster care or simply those who are homeless with no place to lay their head because they have no beds.

She is adamant about her run for the seat because she wants to  ensure that parents are given the needed voice to speak on behalf of their children as taxpayers yet year after year they are at the bottom of the chart when it comes to achieving great success in academia. Why is this happening? She wants to help parents who are still interested in public education and all that is involved to bring their children up to par with all other groups of children and giving them a competitive edge in the global society today.

She say she is running and that she is proposing that funds like the $25 million dollars which were defunded from the LAUSD police department and the funds were supposed to have been transferred to Black students achievement to close the educational gap. What happened to these funds? When she researched the whereabouts there were no reports as to what happened to the $25 million dollars other  than a website that mention something about Black students and mental health. But what about the academic and core curriculums (A-G) advance placement classes assistance which are sorely needed to compete and succeed? Issues like these is why Dr. Zuurveen says she is running to follow the money.

Dr. Zuurveen added that she is running to propose that there be a parent’s ombudsmen to serve as an advocate and representative on the LAUSD school board.  She said there should be a voice on the board that speaks to the needs of the parents who could use some help with their students’ matriculation through LAUSD especially in District 1.

She continued in closing by saying she is running because  she vehemently oppose the huge bureaucracy of LAUSD and that it is her contention that there should be more school based management whereby the schools and the community where the parents and students live should play a greater role in what is best for them, thereby serving the needs of the children, parents, and the community the school serve. In running for the seat, Dr. Zuurveen is proposing to help educate the parents, students, and public alike about the much needed oversight of the multi-billion dollar budget that is being spent year after year with more emphasis given to the teachers’ union and its members as well as administrators at the top while our children languish in classroom ill-equipped and lack 21st century tools and technology to prepare them for the global society we live in. She said that she is determined to run this race for the sake of the children and    parents at LAUSD because for too long, we’ve had to simply accept the status quo but for her she believe that it’s time for the status quo to go and to allow for our children to grow.

She is asking for your support and help to run this race and win. She said any amount will help her in the fight for this seat.

For more information call: (323) 244-7286.