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LAUSD Supt. John Deasy, via KPCC
Whatever happens inside an LA Unified board room tomorrow, support for Superintendent John Deasy is building outside of it.
Education advocacy groups unified as Communities for Los Angeles Student Success today announced they are holding a rally tomorrow morning at district headquarters to encourage Deasy not to resign and to call for an end to the politics they claim are obstructing educational justice in the city.
CLASS said in a press release that Deasy’s reported resignation has “galvanized the largest and most diverse education coalition in recent memory in Los Angeles,” and noted that former LA Unified board members Yolie Flores and Caprice Young will attend the rally.
Another group of Deasy supporters — community leaders and business executives — has sent the seven board members a letter, imploring them to keep Deasy in his job.
They write: “Firing Superintendent Deasy, or making his life so miserable that he has no choice but to leave, is not in the best interests of the students of Los Angeles. We urge you to pull the board together and make every effort to retain one of the top Superintendents in the country.”
Yet a third group — this one of educators, philanthropists and people in the entertainment industry — wrote to board members expressing support for Deasy. They said, “While there are legitimate issues to be worked out with the initiatives the Superintendent has launched, one thing is crystal clear, John Deasy is the leadership that the students of LAUSD need.
And Students Matter, a national non-profit that litigates to achieve quality public education, began a petition drive saying, “The politically motivated decision to remove Dr. Deasy as superintendent would cause a devastating loss in momentum for the district, and the students are the ones who would suffer.”
*Adds a second group of supporters have written board members to keep Deasy.