Life & Work with Lindsay Carlson of Culver City

Today we’d like to introduce you to Lindsay Carlson.

Hi Lindsay, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
I grew up in a suburb of Minneapolis / St. Paul, Minnesota, the daughter of a high school German teacher and an engineer. After receiving a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science and French from Gustavus Adolphus College, I moved to Los Angeles to attend the UCLA School of Law, from which I graduated in 2004. I have been in private practice, mostly as a litigator, for over 20 years.

My husband and I moved to Culver City in 2014, choosing this community because of the reputation of its public school district. We had our son in 2018, and he started school in the district in 2022. That year, I started working with other local parents and families to improve aspects of how the district is run. I am an organizer at heart, but had never intended to run for public office. I found my “why,” and ran for a seat on the board in 2024.

I announced my intention to run in February 2024, for the November election. Because our local elections have been consolidated with the midterm and presidential elections since 2020, there is a high rate of participation from our electorate. Of the 28,533 residents registered to vote in Culver City in 2024, 22,973 of them cast a ballot in the November 2024 election. Reaching these voters required a fairly sophisticated campaign operation – which meant a lot of money, and a lot of time. I spent most of my time early in the campaign reaching out to key endorsers, supporters, and influencers, and meeting voters at community events wherever I could. Later, the strategy pivoted to organizational endorsements, and individual voter outreach – texting, calling, and knocking on doors. I also ran a highly successful postcarding campaign, in which local supporters – mostly moms – wrote 3000+ postcards to voters in their own words explaining why they were supporting me. Because this is a part-time office and I also work full-time, I could not and did not quit or ramp down my day job for the sake of the campaign – everything was done in the evenings and weekends. By the end of the campaign, I was exhausted – but since I won, I had only a brief break until I had to pivot to actually doing the job!

I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
The learning curve as a school board member is steep – even for someone who is a pretty quick learner. Education is a highly regulated, specialized space. I am fortunate to have professional expertise in legal practice and experience in management that made some aspects of the job more intuitive, but there has still been a significant amount of learning on the fly.

The role of the board is most significantly to provide overall policy direction for the district, that the superintendent executes.
A significant challenge I’ve experienced is a disconnect between the public’s perception of how much of a role individual board members or “the board” generally has in decisions made at the district. It’s a lot less than many seem to believe. Many operational decisions are made without our specific involvement or influence, and only some are presented essentially for ratification after the fact. Sometimes community members come to me with an issue to solve that is more appropriately addressed at the site level, and I typically try to gently steer them toward the right first point of contact to handle their issue.

There are times when I express my opinion about a matter to district management, but I know that I am only 20% (one out of five) of the board and usually I have no idea what my colleagues think. Due to the Brown Act – California’s open meetings law – we are only allowed to communicate with each other as a body at our public meetings, typically twice a month but sometimes less than that. Outside of our meetings, each one of us can discuss any issue with a maximum of one other board member. It’s a process meant to ensure maximum transparency in decision-making, but that also means it can be pretty clunky and decisions are made deliberately but slowly.

Can you talk to us a bit about happiness and what makes you happy?
Feeling like the work I’m doing is having a real positive impact on the education of kids in the district makes me feel like what I’m doing is worthwhile. I try to get out to school-related events whenever I can to ensure that I’m seeing the kids in action, and remind myself of why I decided to do this in the first place and why I continue to do it.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.carlsonforccusd.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/carlsonforccusd/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/carlsonforCCUSD

Image Credits
The credit for the photo of myself and Assemblymember Rick Chavez Zbur with other electeds in the background at the Jewish Federation is – Kathy Denning Photography.

The rest of the photos are amateurs using iPhones (or other similar cameras).