Jackie Goldberg and Heather Repenning will compete in a May 14, 2019, runoff election for the District 5 seat on the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) Board of Education, according to certified election results from a March 5 special election. The runoff will take place because no candidate received more than 50 percent of the vote.

 

On March 5, Goldberg finished first, receiving 48.2 percent of the vote. Repenning was second with 13.1 percent. Repenning defeated Grace Ortiz for the second-place spot by 31 votes.

 

The election was necessary to fill the vacancy left by the resignation of Ref Rodriguez.

 

School board elections in the district in 2017 flipped the board from a 4-3 majority of members supported by United Teachers Los Angeles (UTLA) to a 4-3 majority of members supported by the California Charter Schools Association (CCSA). Rodriguez was a member of the latter group, and his resignation left a 3-3 split.

 

CCSA did not endorse in the March 5 race. The UTLA backed Goldberg.

 

Goldberg and Repenning have said they support holding charter schools to the same standards as public schools, among other positions.

 

LAUSD is the largest school district in California and the second-largest in the nation by enrollment. The district had 224 independently operated charter schools in 2017, more than any other school district in the U.S.