The Weekly Newspaper of El Segundo
Herald Publications - El Segundo, Hawthorne, Lawndale & Inglewood Community Newspapers Since 1911 - (310) 322-1830 - Vol. 109, No. 26 - June 25, 2020
Inside
This Issue
Certified & Licensed
Professionals.....................10
Classifieds............................4
Community Briefs...............3
Crossword/Sudoku.............4
Entertainment......................5
Legals.............................. 4,10
Letters....................................3
Pets......................................11
Police Reports.....................3
Real Estate..................6-9,12
Weekend
Forecast
El Segundo Police Department
Stands Behind Our Community
Happy International Surfing Day from ESPD. Our community is strong when we stand together. This photo was taken before social distancing. Photo courtesy El Segundo Police Department.
Don Brann: Still “Being Born”
After All These Years
By Duane Plank
Don Brann, who has worked in the fields of
education and community service for 50 years,
took his first teaching job at El Segundo’s
Center Street School in 1970. Did he enter
the teaching profession because he had a
passion for educating and inspiring young
minds to help shape the future?
Not really. It turns out Brann had a less
altruistic, very practical reason for entering
the educational field. “I wanted my summer’s
off,” he said. “I realized that if I entered the
regular working world, I wouldn’t get my
summers off anymore.” After graduating
from the USC school of business, he took a
job with the May Company department store
chain, but soon realized working that gig
entails showing-up all year, a scenario that
did not appeal to Brann all that much. “Hey,
what happened to summer?” he remembers
thinking while working at May Company.
He decided to return to school and earn a
teaching credential. “Then I would get my
summer’s off,” he said.
Brann moved to Hawthorne in 1953, where
he started his local schooling as a third-grader
in the Wiseburn School District. He graduated
from Hawthorne High in 1963, attended El
Camino College, left with an AA degree, and
then matriculated to USC’s school of business,
graduating in 1968. Brann continued his
schooling at Cal State Los Angeles, receiving
a master’s degree in Elementary Education,
then later returned to USC, leaving with an
Ed. D degree in Administration in 1982.
Brann, who has served the El Segundo and
Wiseburn communities for more than four
decades, and is currently the president of the
Da Vinci Charter School Board of Trustees, is
slated to join the Herald, penning occasional
columns that will mine his depth of experience
in education, local governance, and local
history. Brann said he anticipates opining on
subjects ranging from residential living east
of PCH, what he terms “ugly” El Segundo
borders, Japanese families experiences in El
Segundo in the ’30s and 40s, founding the
Da Vinci Schools, and the Wiseburn Unified
School District (WUSD) boundaries.
Brann has also served two stints on the
El Segundo city council. At 74, Brann may
have been the oldest person to serve on the
council. Why did he decide to run for city
council? “It is important for me to have
meaning in my life, (hoping to) change the
world, working through and with others.”
There was an opening in the city council in
2008, after “retiring” from the neighboring
Wiseburn school district, where he had served
as superintendent since 1993. He ran for the
council and won a seat, serving until 2012.
In 2010, Brann was nominated to become
Mayor but lost to Eric Busch on a 3-2 vote.
Ironically, Brann had the mayor post for
the taking, but he decided to cast his vote
for Busch, which tipped the scales, 3-2, in
Busch’s favor. Do the math, right? Looking
back, Brann says he “didn’t really need to be
the Mayor, or care about it as much. “Eric
Busch wanted to be the Mayor. I was content
to just be a council member,” he said, adding
that he “didn’t know when I went in that I
would be a “maverick” council member, on
the losing side, 4-1, of a majority of big votes
affecting the city. “I just (did) my thing,”
he said of his council tenure, “disagreeing
without being disagreeable.”
Said Brann: “People, especially those who
built this town,” seemed to like his political
stances, noting that when he left the council
six months ago, the old-guard in El Segundo
lost “their champion” who often based his
decisions on long-term “life experiences.”
He returned to the El Segundo City Council
in 2016. He served until the end of 2019,
when he stepped down because of a new
law that mandated that if you were serving
on a charter school board like he is with Da
Vinci, then you could not serve in another
office that you were elected to, like the El
Segundo city council. Although no conflicts
had arisen with Brann serving both posts, he
was forced to make a choice and decided to
keep his position with Da Vinci.
“It was an easy decision for me,” Brann
said. “I like working with teachers and kids.
I think they are a better bet to change the
future than being on a city council.”
After his first city council stint, Brann
returned to working as a superintendent with
the San Gabriel Unified School District. In
2013, he was placed by Gov. Jerry Brown
as the school board trustee/superintendent of
the embattled, tumultuous, financially tanking
Inglewood Unified School District. “A
remarkable assignment,” Brann remembered,
noting that at times he was protected by
members of the California Highway Patrol.
Brann was so successful in his assignment
with the IUSD that he was selected as the
See Don Brann, page 5
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