As we approach the November 5 BHUSD Board of Education election, which is one of the most important in recent years, we are facing the real prospect that there will be no election campaign at all.

Why do I say that this election is important?

For the past several years, a great deal of the Board’s time has been spent on school building construction and litigation, some but not all arising out of construction issues. Those “hardware” issues are, hopefully, behind us. Now, it is time to attend with laser focus to the mission-critical “software”, rebuilding our once and hopefully future academic excellence.

This is somewhat of a sea change – the work that must urgently be done now is quite different from dealing with construction issues and we will have at least two and possibly three new members. Please understand that I am not suggesting that the board and the superintendent and staff have ignored academics. I am suggesting that now that other distracting issues have to some degree been addressed, academics should become its “priority” to the exclusion of others.

Why do I say that there may not be an election campaign at all?

The election is to fill three seats. As of this writing, only three candidates have filed nomination petitions. Unless at least one more candidate emerges and nomination papers by August 9 or, if all eligible incumbents do not run, by August 14 there will be no campaign and the three will be deemed elected. As a result of this, there will be no airing of any of the issues and the residents will have no opportunity to assess in part by comparison which candidates should be entrusted with the direction and management of the district.

Actually, election campaigns are beneficial to both the candidates and the voters. The voters learn about the issues and the candidates’ views on the issues, the candidates also sharpen their thinking about issues and learn what is important to the voters.

Accordingly, in the absence of a contested election both the voters and the candidates themselves will be the losers.

Simply put, we need more well-qualified candidates to create a real discussion about the future of our schools.

This is not intended as a reflection on or criticism of any of the three candidates. who have already submitted nomination papers. But if there is no campaign there can be no discussion. If there is no discussion, an opportunity will be lost.

My friend, former Planning Commissioner and former Traffic and Parking Commissioner, Andy Licht told me that when he attended Beverly Hills High School in the 1970’s, Time magazine ran a story in which BHHS was referred to as one of the two best public high schools in the country.

This is no longer the case – by a considerable margin.

There are two principal ranking services, US News & World Report (“USN”) and Niche that rate public high schools. These ranking services are objectively based. They take into account a number of factors including graduation rates, college readiness, AP exams taken and passed, and our students’ proficiency (as measured by state tests) in math, reading and science.

According to USN, BHHS is not even in the top fifty public high schools in the Los Angeles Metropolitan Area.

Niche ratings are similar.

Please bear in mind that there is plenty of good news about BHUSD. For just one example, the Career Pathways program recently initiated at BHHS is an outstanding addition to the curriculum and attracts the type of students that we would like to attract.

To underscore the importance of the school board election, longtime Board member Noah Margo emphasized to me that the three pillars of the unique and undeniable excellence of our city are BHPD, BHFD and BHUSD. The city council is responsible for the first two. The members of the school board are responsible for the indispensable third. The process of selecting those members is of vital importance.

Whether or not you have children in the schools, it is important to understand the interplay of the three pillars. The quality of our schools has a tremendous impact on our property values which, in turn, help support the quality of the other pillars. To be the best that we can be we should work to ensure that each pillar is strong.

Thus, the quality of our schools and the issues affecting the quality deserve great attention.

So, to discuss these issues publicly, it is important that we have a contested election. We must hear substantive ideas, not simply “I am running because I love the city” or “I want to give back” or “There is so much more to do.” In this context, those words are meaningless.

Rather, I propose that we ask and demand answers to the following questions:

1. What specifically would you do to improve the quality of education?

2. How would you incentivize students to remain at BHHS through graduation?

3. What would you do to improve our rankings; what rank would you target; by what date; how would you get there?

4. Whatever the rating criteria are, how would you improve our performance against those standards.? Specifically, how would you improve student performance on the state’s proficiency tests?

5. What would you do to attract and retain academically gifted students?

A discussion of these issues would be healthy and potentially constructive. Without such a discussion, improving our educational software (academics) will not match or take advantage of the massive investment that we have made over the last decade in our educational “hardware” (the beautiful education buildings and other facilities.)

Here is my bottom line. We would all benefit if we had a real election campaign with more candidates than spots available.

Whether or not you have or will have children in the schools, service on the School Board is a great way to serve our community. Please consider running.

What could be more important than helping our children?

Visit https://www.lavote.gov/home/voting-elections/current-elections/upcoming-elections for more information on how to file a candidacy. The deadline is Wednesday, August 14 and filing is in person at 12400 Imperial Highway in Norwalk.