First of two parts
Barbara Honig was glowing Sunday afternoon, and it was difficult to tell:
• Was she merely smilingly absorbing the mild sunrays on Closing Day of densely crowded Fiesta La Ballona at Vets Park?
• Or, in her role as proud mom, did she seek to maximize exposure to the prominent sticker she was sporting, “Karlo Silbiger for Culver City School Board”?
Surrounded by huge clusters of families roaming the grounds for the next most appealing ride or food booth, Ms. Honig agreed that here was the largest single-day turnout she could remember for Fiesta.
“What worked in our favor this year was the weather,” she said. “It has been so hot the last few years. We might have had the people, but they didn’t stay as long as today’s crowd.
“This year, no one is leaving. The weather is so gorgeous.
“Until this year, oh, my goodness. The weather was so hot, I remember going home and just crashing. Upper 80s, even into the 90s.”
Speaking of Politics
[img]1789|right|Karlo Silbiger||no_popup[/img]Segueing to a new subject, Ms. Honig’s ambitious son Karlo Silbiger was the first School Board candidate to announce for re-election early last spring.
Seventy days out from the Nov. 5 election, he has an unexpectedly large field of six rivals for the three seats that will be decided by the voters.
“The campaign is going very well,” says Mom, herself an alumna of the School Board dating back to the previous century (1996-2003).
“Karlo has played a very important role on the Board, and for that reason more people are interested in what he Is doing than there were four years ago.
“He has done so well in expressing his opinion on different subjects.
“Someone said to me earlier today that whether they agree with him or not, they felt that everything he has done has been well thought out, well researched, and he has presented it well.”
What stance of Mr. Silbiger’s has filled Ms. Honig with the most maternal pride?
“The first thing that comes to my mind is the language immersion program.
“As many years ago as I when I was on the School Board, we have had difficulty in having a viable program beyond the elementary level. Karlo has worked diligently with staff and with community members, whose forté is language learning, to see that we have a real program that actually has happened. Both Japanese and Spanish will go on when you leave El Marino (Language Immersion School). And you have a program now all the way through until you graduate.”
Not to be overlooked: “One of the important growths of the program,” Ms. Honig added, “is that we now have Spanish immersion at La Ballona (Elementary) in addition to El Marino.
“The interest is so great, but we always have been limited.
“The District says, correctly in my view, ‘If there is an interest, let’s fulfill it.’”
Tomorrow: The Silbiger-Honig family’s opinion on delaying the bond measure.
