Candidate for
Board Member; Los Angeles Unified School District; District 7

Dr. Richard Vladovic has been involved in the education of children since the late1960s. He started out as a Social Studies teacher at Stephen White Junior High School in Carson, CA, where he also coordinated the school's Gifted and Talented program and taught in the Leadership and Opportunity Room. From White Junior High, Dr. Vladovic moved on to become the General Secondary and Gifted Advisor for grades K-12 in the Los Angeles Unified School District's Region A office. In this position, he was able to coordinate and support 70 K-12 schools, as well as supervise curriculum development, budget review and the disbursement of funds for the Region office.

After a couple of years as an advisor, Dr. Vladovic accepted a position as principal of Angel's Gate Continuation High School + the first of several administrative positions in schools facing special challenges. He then became Principal of three other schools including Locke High School in South Central Los Angeles. In each of these positions, he focused on academic excellence and implemented innovative educational programs tailored to the needs of his populations. These programs included the establishment of school wide reading programs, the creation of a Career to Work program for at-risk students and the creation of a Wall of Fame to recognize distinguished Alumni. The teachers and staff at Dr. Vladovic's schools were also supported, with programs like a New Teachers Academy and "Classified Recognition" to let everyone know they were important.

As an administrator in the LAUSD Narbonne/San Pedro Cluster, Dr. Vladovic continued his quest for excellence working closely with school and district personnel to improve student achievement. While an administrator with the District Professional Development Program, he helped to develop the New, Emergency Credentialed and Special Education Teacher Training Academy. A pioneering achievement during his tenure with the LAUSD was the implementation of data driven monitoring to assist Clusters in effective instruction. Through the use of data, he was able to facilitate the effective monitoring and redesignation of ELL students to mainstream English programs for which he received a State commendation.

In July of 2000, Dr. Vladovic was selected to head the newly formed Local District K made up of 72 schools serving almost 70,000 children. He immediately began building on the foundation of previous successes by implementing significant reform in the critical areas of professional development, reading and math achievement. These reforms, coupled with overall accountability at all levels, allowed the children of District K to accelerate their achievement in unprecedented ways. When District K was formed, many students were performing below the national average in all subject areas on standardized tests. Three years later, almost all elementary students were achieving within the expected range for their grade level + and many well above!

Of course, test scores are only one of the many measures of success. Under Dr. Vladovic's guidance, District K had several schools recognized at both the state and national level; over 70 National Board Certified Teachers; outstanding Arts programs that brought professionals in every artistic genre to classrooms and allowed children to showcase their talents; and perhaps most importantly, the support, trust and goodwill of parents and the community at large.

In 2003, Dr. Vladovic was named Superintendent for the West Covina Unified School District. In this capacity, he reported directly to the five member Board of Education and was directly responsible for all aspects of leadership and management required to run a district with 14 schools, 11,000 students and an operating budget of $70 million. A testament to his unwavering commitment to children, Dr. Vladovic's tenure at WCUSD resulted in almost half of the schools in the district becoming California Distinguished Schools, National Blue Ribbon Schools or Title I Achieving Schools.

A hallmark of Dr. Vladovic's career has been his willingness to implement innovative, effective programs and strategies that enhance both the quality and quantity of learning within the schools he supervises. During his tenure at WCUSD, he worked with teachers implementing structured reading programs, instituted benchmark assessments for student learning in English Language Arts and Math, and increased the number of students taking AP Exams by ten percent. The result of these measures was that the district as a whole achieved the highest growth rate in Los Angeles County on the Academic Performance Index (API) in 2004.

Throughout his career, Dr. Vladovic has been primarily concerned with student progress. To this end, he worked to establish effective partnerships with elected officials, business and community-based organizations in order to improve educational programs at school sites. Dr. Vladovic honestly cares about children and strongly believes that all the adults in an educational community, from teachers and parent, to faculty and staff to the Superintendent and School Board, bear the responsibility of ensuring that our students are really learning: that they are growing, thinking, and stretching the boundaries of their abilities every single day as we help them along the path to their full potential.