Election: March 2005

Gerald Wayne Perttula will halt the overspending of the "runaway" Community College Board. Your tax Dollars are too precious to be wasted!

Protect your Pocket Book! Let's Make EDUCATION the Board's Priority, instead of ill-conceived LAND DEALS. Vote for Gerald Wayne Perttula to return an Academic Focus to the College Trustee Board.

Gerald Wayne Perttula is a Senior Program Specialist for the LA County Court Schools System, implementing California's Standards-Based Curriculum.

Education is fundamentally important to our Future, our Los Angeles, and our America. Our Constitution recognizes the responsibility government has to provide for the common defence and to promote the general welfare of its citizens. Schooling is as significant as any national security strategy, to maintain our standard of living, and our heritage. Young people are a natural resource to be nurtured. We can't afford their neglect.

Regrettably, not all voters mark a ballot for the College Trustees, since the policy positions of these candidates are often unknown. Cautious voters are reluctant to make blind selections on the ballot.

Voters may be tempted to think there are no significant issues at stake. Why vote for any of them? Does it really matter? What trouble can these trustees cause? Maybe it doesn't matter who I pick.

Be forewarned! Trustees have access to a budget, as well as the authority to initiate bond measures, and 2 bonds (Bond A 2001, Bond AA 2003) have been passed by voters in the past 5 years totaling over $900 million of taxpayer debt.

And where has the money gone?

Spend-thrift incumbents can get into "plenty of trouble". They can be budget busters. Their pet projects and sweet-heart deals can be costly, running into the hundreds of millions of dollars. They can be autocratic, disrespectful of alumni, and contemptuous of students.

And where has the money gone?

Through their MASTER PLAN for the District, created in an insulated vacuum, without consulting staff, alumni or students, the Board intends to demolish the historic LA City College Football Stadium, and replace it with a Science Building. Please, build the Science building, but not at the expense of the Stadium! Save the Stadium and Build the Science Building! It can be done! Retain the Beauty of the LACC Campus! Also, a verdant park was turned into an asphalt parking lot, unilaterally, without consultation of students, staff or alumni. This arrogant disregard of the people they serve must end.

The LACC Board must be more inclusive, more transparent, more responsive to the community and to the students it is meant to serve.

Some pertinent questions:

When will more vocational HighTech software classes be available for students who want to work in the information systems' industry?

When will Mission College offer web-based instruction for the community, including the "students at-risk" attending the local court schools?

Could online classes (at a reduced tuition rate) pull in more revenue for community Colleges? (Let's encourage the private sector to subsidize Community College programs, creating College Enterprize Zones. Let's encourage young entreprenuers to invest in the students of Los Angeles, and the Free Enterprize System.)

Will football (or any stadium sports) return to the LA City College Campus?

To save YOUR TAX DOLLARS...
To RETHINK the Board's MASTER PLAN...
To stop the OVER SPENDING...
the incumbents must be replaced.

There is one candidate who will challenge this autocratic Board. There is one candidate who will bring fiscal responsiblity to the over spenders. Vote for Gerald Wayne Perttula.

Vote for the only candidate to decry the overspending (and misspending) by this Board, especially the Bond AA money, stipulated to go to existing student facilities for the repair and maintenance of health, safety, and security systems. BUT, INSTEAD, part of the Bond money has been spent on the (soon-to-be completed $20 million) purchase of an administrative office building (770 Wilshire), as well as its refurbishing ($5 million). This purchase (if it goes through on MARCH 31st, conveniently scheduled well past the election!) exceeds the stipulations of the Bond Measure.

Vote for Gerald Wayne Perttula this March 8th, 2005.

Other Sweet-Heart deals to be examined for their role in the MASTER PLAN: the Board's ownership of piece of prime downtown real estate, which is then leased (for 35 years) to a contractor who builds a GOLF COURSE.

Also, The 6-million-dollar loss on the sale of 4050 Wilshire is difficult to explain, as is the failure to live up to a Board promise to build a downtown parking lot.

The priorities keep shifting, and students seem to finish last.

On March 8th, 2005, the voter turnout for the LA College District Trustee (Seat Number Six) election will, no doubt, be larger than previous elections because of the tremendous interest and controversy generated by the Mayoral contest. We hope the electorate will take the time to study the issues in this campaign for Board Trustee of the Community Colleges. The candidates for Trustee seat #6 are:

Maria Grunwald Agavaryan
Nancy Pearlman
Gerald Wayne Perttula

Here are the local community colleges in the "Seat Number 6" jurisdiction.

LOS ANGELES COMMUNITY COLLEGES seat #6
East L.A. College Los Angeles 213-265-8650 http://www.elac.cc.ca.us
Los Angeles City College Los Angeles 213-953-4340 http://www.lacc.cc.ca.us
Los Angeles Harbor College Wilmington 310-522-8200 http://www.lahc.cc.ca.us
Los Angeles Mission College Sylmar 818-364-7600 http://www.lamission.cc.ca.us
Los Angeles Pierce College Woodland Hills 818-347-0551 http://www.lapc.cc.ca.us
Los Angeles Southwest College Los Angeles 213-241-5225 http://www.lasc.cc.ca.us
L.A. Trade-Tech College Los Angeles 213-744-9058 http://www.lattc.cc.ca.us
Los Angeles Valley College Van Nuys 818-947-1200 http://www.lavc.cc.ca.us
West Los Angeles College Culver City 310-287-4200 http://www.wlac.edu

Vote for Gerald Wayne Perttula this March 8th, 2005.

Financial Aid for College Students
www.finaid.org Comprehensive financial aid information (nonprofit)
www.csac.ca.gov California Student Aid Commission (Cal Grant)
www.collegeispossible.org National Council on Education
www.nasfaa.org Nat’l Ass’n of Student Financial Aid Administrators
www.fafsa.ed.gov Step-by-step instructions to complete the FAFSA