Let’s remember who wants school board trustee Michael Ellis to resign

Depending upon your perspective, there’s either a Who’s Who or a rogues’ gallery of local media this morning covering last night’s Long Beach school board meeting–and the fact that embattled trustee Michael Shane Ellis is refusing to resign.

(We’d call it a Rogues’ Who–only because, as a young child, we were frightened by a Who.)

Follow the links and you’ll see the Press-Telegram, LBPost.com and LBReport.com cover the calls for Ellis–who has missed two of the last four open-session board meetings, and who pleaded guilty in August to a drunken-driving charge–to step down. The school board voted 3-2 at last night’s meeting to urge Ellis to resign.

But it’s important to consider what’s at stake here–and what else is going on, in this situation. On the one hand you have a school board trustee who perhaps isn’t the best role model ever, to the students in his district.

But is he truly–as Long Beach Chamber of Commerce CEO Randy Gordon said last night–the worst school board member in the history of” the Long Beach Unified School District? And do Long Beach kids even know who’s on the school board?

Perhaps this reflects my own worldly ignorance, but during my entire time in Long Beach Unified School District–and we’re talking first through 12th grade (I skipped kindergarten and third grade)–I could not have named one school board member.

My own role models in high school tended toward Edward G. Robinson, L.L. Cool J, and a little bit of Robert-Smith-of-The-Cure. School board members? Unlikely.

Is Ellis truly the worst school board member ever?

There wasn’t ever one school board trustee before Ellis who–and I’m making this up–ran over a Girl Scout in his Willys-Knight on the way to a Klan rally?

And what of Randy Gordon, the man who’s against Ellis? With the help of District writer Dave Wielenga, let’s review.

As of this writing, the Chamber of Commerce–which Gordon leads–has called for Ellis’s resignation; made the revolutionary announcement that starting next month, it will endorse and back school board candidates–and, as of last night, that it will spearhead a recall of Ellis.

You know what that means in dollars? Another special election.

It also means we’ll be hearing a lot more about what Gordon–and the Chamber–think we should do with our lives. Get used to it; this is a free country.

Tags: California, Edward G. Robinson, Ku Klux Klan, L.L. Cool J, LBPost.com, lbreport.com, Long Beach, Long Beach Chamber of Commerce, Long Beach Unified School District, Michael Ellis, Michael Shane Ellis, press telegram, randy gordon, Robert Smith, Southern California, special election, The Cure, The District Weekly, Theo Douglas, Who's Who, Willys-Knight