Beverly Hills Newcomer Lewis Hall Joins Board of Ed Race

Lewis Hall is the only person in November's Board of Education race who doesn't have children currently enrolled in the district, which he describes as an advantage.

"I can be more objective because my decisions won't affect my children,” said Hall, the to enter the race for three Beverly Hills Unified School District board seats.

A two-year resident of Beverly Hills, Hall is arguably the least known of the four candidates. He will face incumbent and current board Vice President Brian Goldberg, Traffic and Parking Commissioner Andy Licht and El Rodeo parent Frances Bilak in the Nov. 8 election.

Hall moved to Beverly Hills so that his youngest daughter could attend . Her experiences there made him think about running for the school board.

"An incident occurred last year involving my daughter and some other students," Hall told Patch. "I was not happy with the way it was resolved.” He declined to describe the incident further. His daughter, Cara, graduated from BHHS in June.

"I have a background in education and I deal with school districts throughout the country," Hall said. "I have an idea of how things could be handled better." He added that he prefers to give administrators better training rather than micromanage them.

An instructor at Otis College of Art and Design, Hall also works for Elevated Lab Press, which offers an online application that teaches middle school math. The app is available on iTunes and has been downloaded all over the world. In addition, he pens a blog on the Elevated Lab Press website.

Previously, Hall worked as a design director for CBS Entertainment and as art director at Novocom, a Los Angeles broadcast firm. These experiences gave him valuable skills that he can bring to the board, he said.

"I have experience working with and managing teams, and can bring this to the district,” Hall said. He believes the current board is not working as a team, describing the friction some board members display over issues as "inappropriate."

"I want to see parents, teachers, administrators and students working as a team to assure that we put education first and make it excellent," he said.

Hall acknowledged that he is not yet well versed in all of the problems facing the BHUSD, such as challenges with and efforts to fight the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s planned under BHHS.

"I am bringing myself up to speed on these issues and I take them seriously," he said.

Hall’s older daughter, Tasha, graduated from Harvard-Westlake School, one of the top private schools in Los Angeles. She went on to Cornell University. He said there are things that BHUSD could learn from the way schools such as Harvard-Westlake prepare students for college.

"Only three BHHS seniors were accepted into Ivy Leagues last year," Hall said. "I think the reputation of BHHS is a factor."

He compared the school's low Ivy League acceptance rate to the much higher rate of Ivy League acceptance among Harvard-Westlake seniors.

"Some teachers at Beverly are better than the teachers at Harvard-Westlake," Hall said. "We have the resources and the population to be No. 1 in the country."

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