Second in a series
[img]1190|left|Laura Chadiet||no_popup[/img]Re “As the Third Contender to Declare, Chardiet Does Indeed”
How do you get to know someone running for office — a young woman who says she has wanted to run for office for years?
In her own crisp, concise words, let Laura Chardiet, the newest announced candidate for the School Board election in November, introduce herself so you can gain a sense of her priorities:
“I am a working educator for the Los Angeles Unified School District,” she says, and I manage a $15 million adult literacy grant for LAUSD.
“Both of my kids are enrolled in Culver City schools. My daughter is going into the Middle School, my son is at the high school, and both went to La Ballona Elementary School.
“For the past eight years, I have been heavily involved with the PTA in Culver City. I was president of the La Ballona PTA, and for the past two years I have been President for the Culver City Council of PTAs. I also have been on the Community Advisory Budget Commttee, and I was on the School Site Council at La Ballona.”
Extending a Tradition
Teaching runs in the family — starting with her father and continuing with her husband. Describing herself as an advocate for public education, Ms. Chardiet has traveled to Washington (on behalf of adult education) and to Sacramento (to protest state funding cuts).
While she has marched alongside her children as they have progressed through school, adult education has been the focus of Ms. Chardiet’s professional life.
When you ask why, she says: “When I was in college, I studied in Seville, Spain, and I really enjoyed the process of learning a second language.
“When I moved to Los Angeles from San Diego, I became an English as a Second Language teacher, and enjoyed it very much.”
The ESL job choice turned out to be a clue to Ms. Chardiet’s winning personality:
“You have to be very animated to be an ESL teacher,” and that she is.
Difference Is Not Subtle
Anyone who has been in both classrooms will tell you there is a vast gulf between instructing adults and children. Ms. Chardiet promptly noticed that “people from other cultures tend to value education. They respect their teachers. Therefore, you don’t have the classroom management issues you find in K-12.”
A motivating behavioral factor is that “adults don’t have to go to school. They are there because they want to be. By the time you are an adult, you realize the value of education. You are working all day, raising kids, and dragging yourself to school at night to improve your life and the lives of your family.”
Ms. Chardiet has wanted to run for the School Board for the last half-dozen years, sparked by a desire to know how and why the School District is making certain decisions that affect her two children.
“I am running because I think there is a better way to make these decisions,” she says.
Further, as a PTA officer, “I have been approached by teachers who have spoken at School Board meetings where they felt they were not treated well by Board members.
“I was asked to go speak at Board meetings. After hearing from teachers that their ideas were shouted down, dismissed or not listened to, what would I say? ‘I am from the PTA, and everybody needs to play nice?’
“So I decided the best thing I could do,” said Ms. Chardiet, “is become part of the School Board and help foster a collaborative spirit that people seem to want.”
(To be continued)
