I have been concerned for some time about the surprising relatively disappointing rankings of BHUSD schools and the apparent lack of interest in the community about the race for three open seats on the Board of Education.

Consequently, I decided to attempt to explore the reasons for the troublesome apathy of many residents. A few weeks ago, I sent the following memo to approximately thirty engaged City residents:

“I am writing a column that will explore the reasons for the apparent lack of interest in the current campaign for election to the BHUSD Board of Education. Three open seats are contested by only four candidates. Unfortunately, there has been only one forum for the candidates and questions at that forum were limited to students. The campaign events have often been poorly attended. I am interested in your thoughts as to the reasons for this.”

I was pleased to receive thoughtful and insightful responses from most of the recipients.

It is fair to note that reluctance to serve on local school boards is not unique to Beverly Hills. I reviewed a report that stated that in 56% of the public school districts which had races for positions on school boards, there were no elections either because there were either no candidates or the number of candidates did not exceed the open positions.

That fact did not diminish my alarm about the situation in our city or my enthusiasm for trying to identify the causes and potential solutions.

Toward this end, I shall report on what our residents said. As most requested anonymity, I will report on the substance of the comments without attribution, and then offer my thoughts about the issues and how to address them.

The following is a summary of some of the contributions that I received:

- There is no pursuit of excellence – the reputation and ranking of our schools have markedly deteriorated over time.

- Schools are irrelevant to too many residents.

- Elections can be very nasty; smear campaigns are too prevalent.

- BHUSD offers no commissions or programs like Team Beverly Hills to train, recruit future leaders; PTA or BHEF are not enough.

- We have an aging population; schools are not perceived to have an impact on property values.

- Sense of pride in Police or Fire Departments does not extend to schools.

- Grade inflation results in a lack of effort to achieve academic success. Some parents do not push their children to achieve academic excellence.

- Board members have their own personal agendas that distract from focus on pursuit of academic excellence

- Recent board members have been reluctant to rock the boat or ruffle feathers. Like minded people are chosen to be on committees.

- Board members defer unduly to the Superintendent and other administrators who typically adhere to the status quo and recite impediments to change rather than look for creative solutions

- National politics and international issues such as the conflict in the Middle East have been very distracting

- Too much grade inflation can create a false perception of high achievement

- City Council should demand better

- Residents have lost hope that schools will improve

- Too many students go to private schools

- There were no public forums during the campaign that would have allowed for discussion of the important issues

What should we make of these wide-ranging and disturbing thoughts?

First, we must acknowledge that, for the most part, these comments are true.

It is clear that our schools are no longer a shining gem of the community. Worse, not many residents seem to care.

Once, residents took pride in our outstanding schools that attracted young families whose priority was a strong education of their children. Residents who had no children viewed outstanding schools as central to the City’s reputation and property values. This does not seem to be the case any longer.

Consequently, many of our residents who do not have children in the schools, have no particular interest in investing the time and being exposed to the pressure that participation in the Board of Education demands.

The widespread unwillingness to serve on the Board of Education stems from a perception that it is a thankless and time consuming quest for solutions to intractable problems.

There is no question that important public service is time-consuming but there have in the recent past been no shortage of residents willing to invest time in efforts to improve our city. Similarly there can be no debate about the importance of our schools to our city as they are one of three pillars (police and fire protection are the others) that define our city . Further, intractable problems can be solved.

What can be done?

We now have a Board of Education with two newcomers and many challenges.By far the most important challenge is to improve the academic quality of our schools. This must be the focus of the Board.

While the implementation of improvements must be the province of school administrators and educators, the Board must demand that improvement and provide for real and transparent accountability.

I have previously outlined a process as follows:

- Setting aggressive but achievable priority objectives;

- Adopting performance objective metrics such as improvement of State proficiency test scores (and comparison of those scores with classroom grades) and/or graduation rates and/or enrollment in AP classes and/or performance on AP exams; and

- Assigning specific responsibility for achievement of each objective to an identified person or persons.

This process for the 2025-26 academic year should start now as soon as the new Board takes office and be completed and published no later than next April. In recent years, the School District has published so-called “Strategic Plans” only shortly before the commencement of the academic year in August. Not only have these “Plans” consisted largely of platitudinous jargon, but also their suggestions, such as they are, come much too late for implementation.

As part of this process, at the conclusion of the academic year we should hold those responsible accountable for achievement, or lack thereof, and, where appropriate, develop an action plan for corrective measures.

In addition, I have two other suggestions.

First, recognizing the importance of parents to their children’s education, I recommend that the board members increase the already substantial efforts to reach out to parents and other community members to get ideas and promote their involvement with the schools. For example, each board member should create opportunities to engage individually. A booth at the Farmer’s Market and parks could be useful.

Second, declining enrollment often results in an inability to offer the widest range of educational programs. For example, an expansion of the current Permit program from the existing program for grandchildren of Beverly Hills to children of relatives of Beverly Hills residents could help enroll high quality students. If we cannot accommodate more students at the elementary school level, we could target middle or high school students. Additional students could result in an ability to offer additional programs.

We should have a reasonable limit on Permit students. Because BHUSD is a “basic aid” district, we do not get additional funding for additional students. There is a limit on the number of additional students that the District could accommodate without compromising individual attention. An increase from the current cap of 100 to 250 or 300 strikes me as reasonable.

I believe that the implementation of meaningful academic improvements could create a renewed sense of excitement about public education in the City. This is now in the hands of the newly constituted Board of Education. If this can be accomplished or at least if the Board can make meaningful steps in the right direction, apathy could be relegated to the rear view mirror.

Peter Ostroff is a retired attorney and former Beverly Hills Planning Commissioner.