The Brief

School funding measures at both the state and local level appear headed toward success, meaning billions of dollars in funding for school repairs, upkeep, and new construction in the Los Angeles Unified School District.

Who will ultimately be accountable for how that money is spent remains to be seen. With a majority of votes counted in L.A. County, candidates in two of the three open seats on the LAUSD school board appear to have solid leads. The sole incumbent holds a narrow margin over his opponent.

The seven members of the LAUSD board oversee the nation’s second-largest school district, with more than 538,000 students enrolled. The district is also the county’s second-largest employer with more than 74,000 educators, administrators, and support staff on its payroll.

School funding measures

LAUSD asked voters to approve Measure US, a property tax increase to fund $9 billion in renovation and repair projects. Early returns show voters poised to do so.

California voters also approved Proposition 2, which could mean LAUSD gets an additional $700 million in matching funds from the state.

Throughout California, 38% of K-12 students go to schools that do not meet the minimum standard to be considered clean, safe, and functional. Poorly maintained schools are prone to disruption during extreme weather, like September’s heat wave and the historic storms last winter. They may even pose health risks to students and staff.

Research links higher student achievement to better quality schools — it’s easier to learn in clean, climate-controlled, well-lit classrooms.

The money borrowed through Measure US would be paid back through a new property tax that could last up to 35 years, though the amount of the tax will likely taper off in later years of the bond. The district estimates the bond would cost property owners that live within LAUSD’s boundaries just over $25 per $100,000 of assessed value each year.

Sheena Porter voted Tuesday at a South L.A. elementary school. She said she’s generally supportive of education measures and wants to see schools made more resilient against climate change.

Los Angeles resident Sheena Porter considers herself working middle class and says the economy and potential tax cuts were a motivating factor in her vote. "Living in California, it's, it's becoming unaffordable," Porter said. "It's unfortunate because this is a place that I call home. I have moved away and I've come back and there's just no place like home."

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“The fact that they don’t have [working] air conditioning in the classrooms, that’s a big deal,” she said. “When the climate changes and the temperatures get higher and higher, to be in a hot classroom for hours at a time, it’s hard to focus.”

Voters in LAUSD have historically felt the same, approving six bonds since 1997.

“Whatever [schools] need, I vote for,” Porter said, “because that’s our next generation to come.”

We're tracking the results for all of the school district bond measures. Here are the L.A. County results and here are the Orange County results.

Board District 1

In Board District 1, longtime Dorsey High School educator Sherlett Hendy Newbill leads community organizer Kahllid Al-Alim by 40 percentage points. The winner will represent L.A.’s Mid-City, Crenshaw, Arlington Heights, and Westmont neighborhoods on the school board.

Hendy Newbill’s experience more closely matches current District 1 board member (and mentor) George McKenna, who is retiring. Hendy Newbil, who most recently served as an education policy advisor in McKenna’s office, has decades of experience as a high school leader and strong endorsements from sitting board members and other political leaders.

“I've learned that the people of this community, they desperately and honestly want representation from this community,” Hendy Newbill said. “It's been an honor to listen to folks as I knock on doors.”

She said voters told her they want to know that their voices are heard by LAUSD leaders.

Retiring LAUSD Board District 1 representative George McKenna, left, with candidate Sherlett Hendy Newbill at a election night party on November 5.

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“They want to be able to know that they have a door that's open, that they can come and be able to share their ideas and viewpoints,” she said. “That there's an opportunity for them to see change within the board district.”

Al-Alim told LAist in an email before the election that he planned to spend election night with family and friends. "Thanks to everyone that helped me get to this point,” Al-Alim wrote. “It has been a wonderful journey and a life-changing experience. District One deserves a bold leader who's not afraid to challenge opposition to making all students in general, Black and Brown students specifically, successful and productive citizens."

Al-Alim’s campaign lost a groundswell of support and the endorsement of the powerful teachers union after social media posts endorsing antisemitic ideas resurfaced during the primary. Al-Alim has since offered an apology. Since the primary, Al-Alim’s campaign has refunded more than $2,000 in contributions, and it has raised zero dollars for the most recent filing period that ran July 1 to Sept. 21. His campaign has spent just $18 in that same period. He also shuttered his campaign website.

Board District 3

Incumbent Scott Schmerelson faces a tight contest against challenger Dan Chang, a middle school math teacher, who spent years working in the charter school industry. Chang has benefited from more than $5 million in outside spending, mainly from charter school supporters.

The winner will represent West San Fernando Valley and Studio City.

The candidates diverged the most when discussing how the district should handle independently run charter schools. Schmerelson supports limiting their access to traditional public school campuses in high-needs communities while Chang says co-locations benefit students and families from either school.

Board District 5

As of Wednesday morning, former special education teacher Karla Griego holds a solid lead over Graciela “Grace” Ortiz.

The winning candidate will replace retiring LAUSD Board president Jackie Goldberg. And they will represent the unusually shaped board district that cuts through a wide variety of neighborhoods: The Eastside communities of Eagle Rock, Glassell Park, parts of Silver Lake, Hollywood, and Koreatown, as well as Vernon, Maywood, Huntington Park, and South Gate.

This race split the endorsement of major school labor groups. Griego’s agenda closely matches that of the teachers union and is focused on systemic changes like increasing investments in alternatives to school police. Ortiz talked about finding compromises on some of the most contentious issues including charter schools and school policing.

They both believe schools still lack the funding needed to help students thrive. Both were critical of the district’s decision to eliminate a literacy program, Primary Promise, focused on students in kindergarten through third grade.

What’s next?

The Los Angeles County Registrar anticipates updating election results late Wednesday afternoon.

Voters told LAist that they’re expecting returns on their votes.

Roxana Hernandez waited for over an hour in line to vote at Gage Middle School in Huntington Park. She has a daughter entering middle school next year, and wants to make sure she has access to programs and opportunities that will prepare her for college.

“I feel like some schools are very limited to certain things,” she said, “I want kids to be able to feel confident about going to school and knowing that they're going to get the help they need.”

In 2009, a group of 25 students at Eagle Rock Elementary were asked by students at Cal Poly Pomona to draw their dream campus. Nearly all sketched schools with trees, farms and ponds.

The college students took the children’s ideas and drew up a plan that eventually helped transform the Los Angeles Unified school, located between Pasadena and Glendale, from 90% asphalt into a campus flush with trees, gardens and outdoor classrooms.

But nearly two decades later, many Los Angeles schools are still waiting for their greenery transformation. An EdSource analysis found that 249 — or 26% — of LAUSD’s 934 schools have less than 5% tree canopy.

“Imagine standing out on the asphalt. It’s a very hot day, and we see this grass patch, and it’s not that much cooler,” said Lauren McKenna, a senior program manager for Green Schoolyards America. “There’s a few trees, and we’re saying, imagine standing under that one tree. And, imagine there were like 50 more trees.”

Eagle Rock Elementary.

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Los Angeles County has the greatest number of schools among counties in the state located in areas with high heat scores. Many of those campuses lack adequate shade.

That situation was apparent on Oct. 5, when the Los Angeles area saw five straight days of temperatures at or above 100 degrees. Then, more than 9 in 10 LAUSD schools were in an area with high or severe heat risk. 238 schools — serving more than 110,000 students — have trees covering 5% or less of student play and rest areas.

LAUSD officials say they are trying to change that. The board passed a resolution in 2022 to increase green space on school campuses, and many schools have undergone major transformations since then. But parents at schools where there hasn’t been as much progress say they are still waiting.

“Summers are shape shifting in a lot of ways, but it’s not like it’s unpredictable. We know these things are coming,” said Víctor Sánchez, executive director of the Los Angeles Alliance for a New Economy, whose children attend schools in the Highland Park neighborhood. On the asphalt surfaces at his child’s school, he said, temperatures sometimes surpass 120 degrees.

A resolution in the making 

When the board adopted in 2022 its initiative to have 30% of its campuses covered in green space by 2035, only 16% of campuses met that benchmark.

Greening schools and increasing tree canopies aren’t synonymous, but there is substantial overlap. More broadly, greening aims to reduce asphalt on campuses while incorporating outdoor spaces, trees, gardens and other natural elements.

Currently, 27% of LAUSD schools meet the district’s greening goals, according to Christos Chrysiliou, chief eco-sustainability officer, who oversees the district’s greening efforts. More than 80% of the district’s highest-need elementary schools also have a greening project that has been completed, is underway or is planned.

The majority of these projects are funded through voter-approved school facilities bonds, Chrysiliou said, including the $9 billion bond L.A. voters passed in 2024. The bond measure directed $1.2 billion to outdoor areas and play spaces, including school greening projects, he said.

Additional grants from CAL FIRE and the California Natural Resources Agency have also helped fund the work.

But progress has varied across the district. At schools like Eagle Rock Elementary, greening projects began decades ago, and the trees are mature. At Esperanza Elementary in the Westlake area, by contrast, newly planted trees have years of growth ahead.

LAUSD’s Esperanza Elementary with newly planted trees and greenery.

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“This is more than a beautiful schoolyard. This is what environmental justice looks like,” said LAUSD Board Vice President Rocío Rivas at an August ribbon cutting ceremony at Esperanza Elementary.

“Every child deserves access to green, healthy spaces where they can learn, play, connect with nature, regardless of their zip code.”

Equitable access to shade 

While LAUSD has set their goal at 30%, Kelly Turner, a professor of urban planning and geography at UCLA, said that amount of green space won’t always lead to the desired benefits.

“Los Angeles is huge and spans many different climate regions,” Turner said. “So, a school in the valley versus a school in the Inland Empire versus a school in central or coastal LA, they’re all going to have very different climate conditions and therefore different needs.”

LAUSD prioritizes schools based on CalEnviroScreen, a dataset measuring communities based on pollutants, and Cal-Adapt extreme heat data. Schools with the highest rankings are addressed first, Chrysiliou said.

Elementary schools with less than 10% green space are also prioritized, as is enrollment, so projects can “help the most students,” he added.

“We want these kinds of greening projects to benefit the students with the most need and the fewest options for green space at home,” said Claire Latané, a professor of landscape architecture at Cal Poly Pomona, whose students participated in the 2009 effort at Eagle Rock Elementary.

In 180 LAUSD schools, trees cover more than 15% of the areas where students play and rest, about 22% on average. In 249 schools, trees shade 5% or less, an average of just 3%.

There’s an equity component, too. While 76% of students at high-canopy schools are eligible for free and reduced-price meals, 88% of students at low-canopy campuses qualify.

“Equity and access are central to the district’s approach,” Chrysiliou said. “Greening funds goes first to schools with the least green space in the communities hit hardest by pollution, extreme heat and economic hardship.”

Alinne Gonzalez has two children in the district who attend schools in the sometimes sweltering Van Nuys area, one in first grade and one in 10th. Back in 2022 when the district passed its resolution stating its greening goals, Gonzalez recalled thinking that while her eldest son might not get to enjoy a tree canopy, at least her youngest would.

Progress has been slow, she said. Some younger trees have been planted, but there still isn’t much shade.

She and other parents have been growing frustrated and have been calling on the district to speed up its progress.

“They keep saying it’s going to get done,” Gonzalez said. “…But we’re not going to let up. We’re going to keep going until it happens for us.”

LAS VEGAS (AP) — Duane “Keffe D” Davis is set to be sentenced Tuesday for orchestrating the murder of rap icon Tupac Shakur, who was gunned down off the Las Vegas Strip over 30 years ago.

Davis, 63, was convicted in August of first-degree murder with the use of a deadly weapon. He is the only person ever charged in the death of Shakur, whose popularity was peaking at age 25. Davis faces life in prison without the possibility of parole.

On the night of Sept. 7, 1996, Shakur was in the passenger seat of a black BMW with music mogul Marion “Suge” Knight when a white Cadillac pulled up at a red light, and shots erupted. Shakur was shot multiple times and died six days later, while Knight survived.

Shakur is considered one of the most influential and versatile rappers of all time and had a burgeoning film career as an actor at the time of his death. His legend has only grown since. His songs still resonate among fans with themes of hardship, love and Black struggles.

The killing went unsolved for years until Davis, a former leader of the South Side Compton Crips, gave interviews and published his role in the shooting in his 2019 tell-all memoir. He explained how Shakur and his entourage beat up Davis’ nephew hours before the shooting in Las Vegas. He said he sought retaliation, and that he was in the passenger seat of the Cadillac and passed the gun to the backseat, where shots were fired. Davis had spoken to detectives years before but avoided prosecution because of an agreement he made with law enforcement.

During the weekslong trial, prosecutors relied on Davis’ own statements he made to law enforcement and documentarians. They argued Davis orchestrated the shooting and provided the gun used in Shakur’s death, which was the result of a rivalry between the South Side Compton Crips and Mob Piru. Davis’ defense attorney pointed to a lack of physical evidence that connected his client to the 30-year-old crime, and he portrayed Davis as a liar who was trying to make money.

After nine days of hearing testimony in August, the jury deliberated for three hours before turning over the guilty verdict. Davis said in court that he plans to appeal.

Shakur was an icon, a brother

Shakur’s family is expected to speak at the sentencing, including his siblings Maurice “Mopreme” Shakur and Sekyiwa “Set” Shakur.

Following the verdict, prosecutor Binu Palal said that to many people, Shakur was an icon or an idea, “but to the family, Tupac Shakur was a brother, a son, a cousin, a loved person ripped from them 30 years ago.”

Palal said the family had to sit through years of Davis “bragging about killing someone they loved.”

“They loved that man. And the arrogance that Mr. Davis had in expressing his joy in killing that man ultimately was his undoing,” Palal said.

Prosecutors say they have insufficient evidence to charge anyone else

Davis is the only person to be charged and convicted in the killing of Shakur. The three other people who allegedly were in the Cadillac — including Davis’ nephew Orlando “Baby Lane” Anderson who Davis said was the one who pulled the trigger — have died.

Sean “Diddy” Combs and his alleged role were brought up often throughout the trial. Witnesses testified Combs used members of the South Side Compton Crips for security for Bad Boy Records. In his book and public statements, Davis alleged Combs offered him money to kill Shakur and Knight. Combs, who is serving a four-year prison sentence after being convicted of prostitution-related offenses, has repeatedly denied any involvement in the death of Shakur.

Clark County District Attorney Steve Wolfson has said his office doesn’t believe it has sufficient evidence to charge anyone else.

“But like any other case, if we come into more information, more evidence, we can always consider filing additional charges,” he said following the guilty verdict. “But today, we don’t believe that’s the appropriate move to make.”