Why I am running for LA Community College of Trustees, Seat 5

By Lydia A. Gutierrez

for Los Angeles

Community College Board Seat #5

I want to thank you for reaching out to me and wanting to know more about who I am so that you will be able to make a wise decision in casting your vote.

I am running because I believe our community colleges should be affordable, accessible, academic and fiscally accountable. At present, Los Angeles City has the largest Community College District in the nation. It serves 142,000 students a year. It has a 31% success rate of 17% transfer, 9% receive an AA Degree, and 5% receive a Certificate. It has a 69% failure rate. This is wrong. This needs to be directly addressed. I would like to see the success rate doubled in 5 years. What needs to happen is when a student is on an AA Degree track, this student needs to be guaranteed he or she will be able to take the classes to complete this degree in the 2 year time frame.

What I would like to accomplish is being: Effective, Efficient, and Environmentally Friendly when making decisions in regards to policy and budget matters. Recently, articles have come out of blatant misuse of 5.7 billion dollars of building bond monies for the Los Angeles Community Colleges (Los Angeles Times, dated 2/27/11 http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-build1-20110227,0,1763444.story). There was no master plan put in place for the 9 campuses. At present, the integrity of structures that are being built on the LACCD campuses is being questioned. For every misuse of materials is added waste to the environment. This is wrong. There must be those who are professionally qualified to review all work and recommend the most reasonable method of moving forward that is effective, efficient, and environmentally friendly. A master plan must be put in place that has been reviewed by the public.

I am a believer of the public educational system and the importance of keeping it affordable for our students. The day a person graduates from high school they have no working skills to be self-supportive. Many families do not have the income to send their child to a 4-year college and many adults need to develop a skill for a second career because of job loss. Community college is the most affordable opportunity they will have.

As for my opponent, this is what I have read about him:

http://blogs.laweekly.com/informer/2011/04/scott_svonkin_laccd_utla.php

http://www.laweekly.com/2011-04-07/news/scott-svonkin-s-personality-problem/

Thank you again for visiting my website and I would be honored to have your vote for the May 17th election.

Sincerely,

Lydia Gutierrez

Candidate for LA Community College Board of Trustees, Seat 5

Vote May 17th

Join Lydia's team and together we can make LA Community Colleges #1 in the Nation!