Photos: Karen Bass becomes first woman elected mayor of lead L.A. school board
In this March 2, 2017 file photo, Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti, left, looks on as Karen Bass, right, becomes the first woman elected to represent the Los Angeles Unified School District Board of Education. The Los Angeles Unified School District Board of Education announced Monday, April 4, 2018, that Bass, an outspoken advocate for education reform, had been elected its first woman leader. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes, File)
In this March 2, 2017 file photo, Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti, left, looks on as Karen Bass, right, becomes the first woman elected to represent the Los Angeles Unified School District Board of Education. The Los Angeles Unified School District Board of Education announced Monday, April 4, 2018, that Bass, an outspoken advocate for education reform, had been elected its first woman leader. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes, File)
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Karen Bass has become the first woman elected to represent the Los Angeles Unified School district board of education when she was elected Tuesday.
Bass, now president of the Los Angeles Teachers Union and an education activist, defeated former board member Paul Koretz in the race.
“It will be a great day in the history of Los Angeles,” Bass told reporters after the election.
Bass, an outspoken advocate for education reform, has been a longtime educator and has been active on the UCLA faculty since 2000. For the past 10 years, she has served as president of the California Teachers Association.
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Bass was first elected to the school board in 2012, when she defeated a board member who had championed a more conservative ideology. She was reelected that year.
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LATE ELECTION
In March, school board members voted to remove Koretz from the board, effective immediately, after the board learned he had been convicted of felony grand theft from 2012 to 2014.
During the campaign, Bass had criticized Koretz as being too “radical” for the school board. However, she said at the time she wouldn’t have supported Koretz if she won.
“It was a real-world challenge for me and I’ve been working hard on this
