What\u2019s on the agenda for next term<\/p>\n
Long Beach Unified has had a tough year. The district is operating at a large deficit due to declining enrollment, rising costs and not enough state and federal funding. As a result, the school board has already authorized tens of millions of dollars in program and position cuts to balance its budget. And the board will have to make more tough decisions next year.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, the district has work to do in order to meet the ambitious academic achievement goals the school board set for June 2028. The district isn\u2019t on track to meet most of these goals, and the board will have to strategize about how to advance student outcomes.<\/p>\n
The board will also have to steer the district as a new superintendent takes over to lead LBUSD following Jill Baker\u2019s retirement after serving six years in the role.<\/p>\n
What it takes to win<\/p>\n
If one candidate receives more than 50% of the vote in the June primary, that person will be declared the winner, and the general election will be canceled. If no candidate receives a majority, the two candidates who receive the most votes will face off in the November general election.<\/p>\n
The candidates for Long Beach Unified School Board, District 5<\/p>\n
About LAist’s voter guides<\/p>\n
When information is missing<\/p>\n
Some candidates did not reply to our requests for images. Some did not have a campaign website and\/or list of endorsements available online at the time of publication. We will update this guide as more candidate information becomes available.<\/p>\n
Diana F. Craighead, incumbent<\/p>\n
Diana Craighead has served on the Long Beach Unified School District Board since 2012. For the past four of those years, she\u2019s been president.<\/p>\n
In her own words<\/p>\n
Over the past six years, Long Beach Unified has lost about 10,000 students, an amount that exceeds the size of entire school districts, Craighead said. Alongside declining enrollment, COVID and the ongoing threat of federal immigration officers have driven attendance down overall \u2014 from about 95% into the 80s. With the help of a public information campaign, Craighead said the numbers have begun to creep back up. But every bit matters because for each percentage point attendance dips, the district loses about $8 million, she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd all these things mean we are now deficit spending,\u201d she said. \u201cNow we\u2019re having to make cuts \u2026 very unpleasant decisions, especially when you consider the majority of our budget goes to personnel.\u201d<\/p>\n
Making these types of cuts takes an \u201cemotional toll,\u201d Craighead said, but it\u2019s something she\u2019s had to handle before. So she believes her experience with the School Board and institutional knowledge as a whole will be helpful in making the inevitable tough decisions. Craighead said another priority for her if elected will be to finish overseeing the implementation of the district\u2019s Student Outcomes Focused Governance. This is a highly touted educational structure that identifies student goals based on research and community engagement, and then constantly evaluates their progress.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019re in a position of making positive change for the education of thousands of students, and somebody says, ‘You\u2019re going to have to work harder but your students are going to do better,’\u201d she said. \u201cWell, sign me up.\u201d<\/p>\n
More voter resources:<\/p>\n
Go deeper:\u00a0<\/p>\n
Maureen “Quinn” Flaherty, special education teacher<\/p>\n
![\"a](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/1778194449_26_.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n
Maureen Flaherty<\/p>\n
(<\/p>\n
Courtesy Maureen Flaherty<\/p>\n
)<\/p>\n
Maureen \u201cQuinn\u201d Flaherty was born and raised in Long Beach and has two educational credentials, in addition to a master\u2019s degree in education\/counseling. She said she\u2019s currently working as an education specialist at a \u201cvirtual independent charter homeschool.\u201d<\/p>\n
Flaherty said that in 2020, COVID prompted her to become an activist. She launched a speaker series to educate the public on their constitutional rights and later founded the Long Beach chapter of the Eagle Forum<\/a>, which emphasizes \u201cpro-family\u201d values and identifies itself as \u201cAmerica\u2019s oldest conservative grassroots movement.\u201d She said she also volunteers with Moms for Liberty<\/a>.<\/p>\n In her own words<\/p>\n Flaherty said LBUSD is facing an ongoing budget crisis that affects everything from staffing to student achievement. If elected, she said she\u2019d conduct a line-by-line audit of district spending to identify where cuts could be made that don\u2019t impact \u201cclassroom-facing resources.\u201d That\u2019s because 60% of LBUSD students are performing below standards in reading, writing and math \u2014 and parents have lost confidence in the district, Flaherty said.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen I\u2019m out talking to the voters \u2026 they don\u2019t really like what they\u2019re hearing about the school district,\u201d Flaherty said. \u201cThey feel that there\u2019s a socialism\/Marxism agenda.\u201d<\/p>\n She said parents want a candidate that\u2019s \u201cfor their values\u201d and are critical that the district is not \u201cteaching the constitution.\u201d Flaherty says she doesn\u2019t support vaccine mandates and believes that transgender students should only be allowed to play sports in accordance with the gender on their birth certificates. Flaherty has also stated that when it comes to allowing federal immigration agents on campus, she\u2019d have to take it on a case-by-case basis.<\/p>\n Flaherty said reviewing LBUSD\u2019s curriculum and addressing student\u2019s mental health needs would be among her top priorities.<\/p>\n More voter resources:<\/p>\n Website: MFlaherty4LBSchoolBoard.com<\/a>Endorsements: Chad Bianco, Riverside County Sheriff and Republican candidate for California governor.Full endorsements list here<\/a>.<\/p>\n Go deeper:<\/p>\n Sara Socheata Pol-Lim, educational consultant\/parent<\/p>\n Sara Socheata Pol-Lim<\/p>\n (<\/p>\n Courtesy Sara Socheata Pol-Lim<\/p>\n )<\/p>\n Sara Socheata Pol-Lim was born in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, and separated from her family under the Khmer Rouge regime. Forced into labor camps, many of Pol-Lim\u2019s family members died, while Pol-Lim and her mother eventually escaped to California. Pol-Lim says she\u2019s passionate about education because she was denied access to it for so long.<\/p>\n \u201cBeing a child who survived the genocide era in Cambodia during the political turmoil \u2026 I was without formal schooling for over eight years,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Pol-Lim began learning English through ESL classes in the U.S. She went to college and then graduate school, and in 2018, she received her doctorate in educational leadership from Cal State Long Beach. She was also the first woman to serve as executive director of the United Cambodian Community of Long Beach \u2014 a position she held from 2007 to 2015. In 2025, she released Coming to Terms with Historical Trauma: A Memoir<\/a>.<\/p>\n In her own words<\/p>\n Pol-Lim said the trauma of life under the Khmer Rouge persists even decades later, and she hopes to serve as an example for her Cambodian community in Long Beach, home to the largest Cambodian community in the U.S. She said she\u2019s made a concerted effort to overcome her \u201cchronic distrust\u201d of institutions and break free of the deference she was coerced into during the genocide.<\/p>\n Now, Pol-Lim said she can\u2019t afford to stay silent. \u201cTo me, being American is being involved,\u201d Pol-Lim said. \u201cIt\u2019s the time where I, on a personal level, believe that being just a spectator is no longer adequate.\u201d<\/p>\n If elected, Pol-Lim said her first priority would be addressing LBUSD\u2019s budget deficit; specifically, evaluating how funds could be shifted to prioritize teacher retention and to avoid more layoffs. She said she\u2019d also use resources to keep students \u2014 and educators \u2014 safe from immigration enforcement. This would be accomplished in part through more campus security and ensuring confidentiality of student enrollment information, she said.<\/p>\n More voter resources:<\/p>\n Website: SPolLim4SchoolBoard.com<\/a>Endorsements: Vice Mayor Roberto Uranga, District 7; former City Council member Tanya Uranga, District 7<\/p>\n Go deeper:<\/p>\n How to get involved<\/p>\n Keeping tabs on the Long Beach Unified School Board<\/p>\n School board meetings typically take place every other Wednesday at 5 p.m. at the district office at 1515 Hughes Way in Long Beach. Members of the public can attend in person or watch virtually through the livestream on the district\u2019s YouTube channel<\/a> (where previous meetings are archived).In order to give public comment, community members must attend in person and sign up with an assistant stationed outside the entrance to the boardroom. Further information on public participation is available here<\/a>.Board meeting schedules, agendas and minutes are available here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"What\u2019s at stake in this race Long Beach Unified School District is one of the largest school districts…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":292334,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[12506,74490,131,133,132,127888,128484,49733,124588,16607],"class_list":["post-305005","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-long-beach","tag-district-5","tag-lbusd","tag-long-beach","tag-long-beach-headlines","tag-long-beach-news","tag-long-beach-school-board","tag-long-beach-schools-primary-election","tag-long-beach-unified-school-district","tag-voter-game-plan","tag-voter-guide"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/305005","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=305005"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/305005\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/292334"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=305005"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=305005"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=305005"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"a](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/1778194449_916_.jpeg\")
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