The mother of three accomplished adult sons and the wife of a former mayor, Ms. Wolkowitz’s academic resume probably is as extensive as her husband’s civic record.
One objective of the visit with her was to place a more human face on the School Board. A veteran of one and a half terms, she sounded, at turns, weary of it all, inured to slings and arrows, and anxious to gallop through the next two years.
The Tale of the Tape
The latest Board flap centers on an implication that something funny may have happened to an official Board tape recording that failed to transcribe a potentially explosive dialogue between two members haranguing about the Board president when she was absent.
Comfortably positioned in a corner of her office at the Eco Star Station on Jefferson Boulevard, Ms. Wolkowitz dealt candidly, in a rare interview, with an array of volatile subjects that have brought criticism to the School Board.
In the medium deep background, exotic birds irrepressibly chirped melodious tunes.
Often smiling, sometimes laughing, she said she welcomed an opportunity to correct tilted or just plain wrong impressions.
Ms. Wolkowitz talked about the forthright Board President Saundra Davis, a lightning rod who is the most visible member, idiosyncrasies and relationships of Board members, health care insurance, the confusing Jungle Jim latticework of the state educational bureaucracy, Teachers Union contract negotiations and the role racism may have played in the recent rejection of a Ladera Heights’ transfer attempt.
Charmingly light-hearted at times, she was not reluctant to be introspective. She was frank, she was personal, and willing to acknowledge her own soft spots.
“I know I don’t want to talk about Saundra,” she began. “On the other hand, she is the impetus for things at times. Some of us — I am going to say me, I don’t want to speak for other people.
“I don’t care that Saundra happens to be African American. It’s like, okay, and it’s over with. We have different views about what our roles are. I am a role follower. I think she likes to challenge the system. That is okay. But to say if we don’t agree, we are against her as an individual, is not, well, I just don’t allow that from her.
“She and I, when we talk, that is not the topic. Sometimes I think, ‘Gee, I am the one who got her started because I invited her to be on a board of mine. Her answer was, ‘Am I your token?’ I said ‘Token what?’ I actually meant that. I did not know what she was talking about. She had to explain it. And then I described my board to her. No, she was not the only African American.
“Saundra and I come from different places. We respond to things differently. I don’t spend the time (on School Board business) that Saundra does. And that gets in the way of moving forward.”
A Moment of Truth, Maybe
Detouring into the sometimes-minefield of relations between Board members, Ms. Wolkowitz said that when they disagree in a high profile moment, the audience assumes they always clash.
“The truth is we really are pretty polite with each other,” she said. “When I watch this other group on TV (the City Council), how they conduct themselves. I think to myself, ‘We are not related.’
“At our public meetings, we follow our agenda. We follow our rules, sometimes too much so. We let some speakers get away with more than we should. All of us are worried about breaking laws. We take the Brown Act (about privacy) very seriously.”
The cordiality of School Board members in their interpersonal relations is genuine but it has limits.
Marla and Ed Wolkowitz, for example, don’t socialize with other Board-ers, although members are broadly welcome to watch the Fourth of July fireworks from their Creekside property. Board member Jessica Beagles-Roos, a neighbor, comes over.
“I knew Jessica a little bit from carpooling,” Ms. Wolkowitz said. “I know her a lot better now. I did not know Dana Russell before he came on the Board, and Saundra I knew from the PTA.”
Ms. Wolkowitz said that she has known Board member Stew Bubar for more than twenty years, largely through their activities at Temple Akiba. “I have only been out publicly with him at public functions,” she said.
On the Matter of Insurance
Turning to the subject of oversubscribed health care insurance, Mr. Bubar, Dr. Russell and Ms. Wolkowitz were cited, virtually as an aside, one year ago next week by the County District Attorney’s office.
There the matter lies and is going to lie, as far as she is concerned. She confined her remarks to a single cryptic sentence: “As soon as a bill comes from the D. A. I will pay for it.”
Ms. Wolkowitz expressed frustration with the way that some residents interpret responses from Board members at public meetings.
“When we give an answer to someone from the public, it always surprises me, astounds me, that they think we are saying something just to say it, as if we were not telling the truth.
“I think ‘Why did you believe me before I was on the School Board or when I was president of the PTA (where I had much more authority) and not believe me now?’”
Why is that so?
Her answer bounced back fast:“Because I am elected.”
She said people think that as an elected official she must be hiding information. “Their attitude is, no longer am I doing what I set out to do. I should be clear. This does not happen frequently, and a lot of this is about how I feel.
“I attended School Board meetings for years. I never could understand why the Board did not see my point of view. Now I know why: I did not have the big picture, which is the difference now.
“When you are a feeling person, it never is easy to have people stand in front of you and give you those dagger looks, make fun of you.”
At this point, in an attempt to imitate those who mock her, Ms. Wolkowitz hooked one thumb in each ear and wiggled her fingers.
Why Aren’t They Listening to Us?
She admitted feeling further wounded when audience members in the rear of the room carry on noticeable separate conversations for the entire evening. “We haven’t captivated them, either,” she said. “What did we do wrong? That is hurtful to me.”
How then does Ms. Wolkowitz attain inner peace? “I know in my heart,” she said, “a whole heckuva lot of other people are very happy with what we are doing. I know that the majority is the silent majority.”
Admitting that she is not a stranger to overreaction, “I know that some things are not as bad as I make them out to be. I am not going to get sick from that anymore.
“I used to go home and eat. But I don’t do that anymore,” she said with a laugh.
“I will tell you how it used to be. If Ed was up when I got home from a meeting, I used to rehash the things where (other Board members disagreed) with me. Why didn’t they see it my way? Then I would get over it. Because, if I lost, I lost.
“Once you are elected, there are more roadblocks for sure. First, you have to get two people to agree with you. If I can’t get two people to agree with me, I don’t call the newspapers. I just bring back the subject later, hoping in Round Two I can get people to agree with me.”
But the inner roiling does not go away, Ms. Wolkowitz said, when she goes home and goes to sleep following a School Board meeting. “I can’t turn things off that fast,” she said. “I will be thinking about it — not all of the time, of course — for two, three weeks.
“Yeah, it nags at me. I take what I do very seriously.”
(To Be Continued)
