Nick Priga / Roundup
Tomorrow, four of the seven seats on the Los Angeles Community College District board of trustees will be open to election, and school administrator Kurt S. Lowry is running against incumbent Miguel Santiago for seat No. 7.
Lowry aims to focus spending away from construction and towards course offerings, vocational training, internships and counseling services.
“I also want to see more vocational and trade course offerings because our labor force is outsourcing jobs to people who know how to make and fix things, while we sit, soft and fat, not knowing how to fix anything,” he said on his Web site, friendsofkurtlowry.com.
In information provided to smartvoter.org, Santiago said he wants to “strengthen commitment to developing a ‘green’ curriculum that would prepare students for the growing green technology sector.”
He also said one of his top priorities is to expand workforce and training opportunities.
On his Web site, he said he would vote against any new bond measures until projects created by Proposition A, AA and Measure J have been completed and paid for. Measure J allows the LACCD to issue $3.5 billion in bonds to fund renovation and construction projects on campuses in the district. He said he is committed to accountability and oversight.
Both candidates commited to increasing transfer rates from community colleges, as well as keeping student fees low.
On his Web site, Lowry said he is “the only candidate for seat No. 7 that works full-time in public education.”
He is currently assistant principle at Lanai Road Elementary School, and spent two years in the same position at Third Street Elementary School. He attended Los Angeles Pierce College, California State University, Northridge, and University of California, Los Angeles.
Santiago taught at Guardian Angel Catholic School, a middle school in Pacoima. As Parish Director at Our Lady of the Valley, a Catholic church and school, he established educational outreach programs targeting low income and immigrant communities. He attended University of California, Los Angeles and grauduated magna cum laude, majoring in history.
According to the LACCD website, Santiago was a founding member of the Canoga Park Neighborhood council and served two terms as president. He was a board member of the LAPD Jeopardy program, and the Canoga Park Main Street Business Improvement District.
After Warren T. Furutani resigned from the LACCD board, Santiago was unanimously appointed to the Board. According to a press release from the LACCD from March last year, Santiago would serve a two-year term, as opposed to a full four-year term, before the seat would be up for election again.
Santiago has been endorsed by the American Federation of Teachers,The Association for Los Angeles Deputy Sheriffs, the Sierra Club and the Los Angeles County Democratic Party. Lowry has been endorsed by three candidates who are running for other seats on the board, Jozef Thomas Essavi, Roy Burns and Lady Cage-Barile. He has also received an endorsement from the Los Angeles Times, the Republican Party of Los Angeles County, and Micheal D. Antonovich, who represents the fifth district on the L.A. County Board of Supervisors.
Neither candidate was able to be interviewed prior to the election.
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