Herald Publications - El Segundo, Hawthorne, Lawndale & Inglewood Community Newspapers Since 1911 - (310) 322-1830 - Vol. 2, No. 26 - June 25, 2020
Inside
This Issue
Certified & Licensed
Professionals.......................7
Classifieds............................2
Entertainment......................2
Hawthorne............................3
Hawthorne Hotspot............3
Lawndale..............................4
Inglewood.............................5
Legals.................................6,7
Pets........................................8
Weekend
Forecast
Friday
Partly
Cloudy
71˚/62˚
Saturday
Partly
Cloudy
72˚/62˚
Sunday
Partly
Cloudy
71˚/62˚
Lawndale Tribune
AND lAwNDAle News
Hawthorne Press Tribune
Featuring the Weekly Newspapers of Hawthorne, Inglewood and Lawndale
Fueling the Fearless, a Good Cause
that Helps Restaurants in Need
The team of healthcare heroes at Centinela Hospital being honored with another generous donation from Little House Confections and the amazing team at Fueling the Fearless. Fueling the Fearless is a
nonprofit organization that raises donations and hires local mom and pop restaurants hit hardest economically to prepare meals. These meals are delivered to the brave doctors, nurses and hospital staff
caring and protecting our community. Photo courtesy Centinela Hospital.
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 Superintendent of
the Year by Pepperdine University in 2014.
Brann has served as a school district superintendent
an incredible six times, a career
spanning 35 years. You might think that, at
74, Brann has had his fill of running school
districts. But you would be wrong. “I don’t
know if I will do another one (serve as a superintendent),”
he said, keeping the door open
to that, saying he wants to maintain meaning
in his life. “I don’t want to be bored. I like
the work; it is really challenging.”
Matt Wonder, chief executive officer of the
Da Vinci schools, knows why Brann has been
so sought after as a superintendent by multiple
school districts. “Don Brann is a genius,” he
said. “He can see a better future, and he can
then create a tactical plan to execute it, then
he can garner all the resources to enact that
plan. At every moment, he cares deeply about
people, and he has a great sense of how people
See Don Brann, page 4