Get to Know Your Board Member: Interview with LAUSD’s Nick Melvoin

As a parent or caregiver, knowing your school board members is important because they serve as the voice for your child’s school and can enact meaningful change in their educational journey. To that end, FIS launched a “Get to Know Your Board Member” interview series with each member of LAUSD’s Board of Education.

This month, we spoke with Nick Melvoin, who represents Board District 4 (West Los Angeles and the West San Fernando Valley, including Venice, Hollywood, Pacific Palisades, Encino, Reseda, Tarzana, and more).

Born and raised in West LA, Melvoin has served on the LAUSD school board since 2017. He chairs the Facilities and Procurement committee and serves on the Children and Families in Early Education committee. He’s a former LAUSD teacher and has worked for Teach For America, Educators 4 Excellence, Teach Plus, and Loyola Marymount University.

Can you share a bit about your life story, and what inspired you to become a board member?

A century ago, when my family of Jewish immigrants escaped persecution in Eastern Europe to New York, public schools in the Lower East Side of New York transformed my family’s trajectory. At the time, our last name was “Maelwurm,” but my great-grandfather’s kindergarten teacher misheard it and instead wrote down “Melvoin.” When he got home, his parents said, “Well, if that’s what the kindergarten teacher says, that’s our new name because the only way to succeed in this country is through schools.” And so, we’ve been the Melvoin family ever since.

I grew up in Board District 4, and I come from a family of educators and teachers. My parents were both products of public schools and initially committed to sending both my brother and me to an LAUSD school. However, as other families and friends started sending their children to independent schools, my parents decided to join in and put me into one.

Growing up, I didn’t know how to talk about opportunity gaps and the need for stronger schools until I started volunteering at Camp Harmony—a nonprofit camp for kids experiencing homelessness that I now run—in high school. I saw how many of these kids lived just a few miles away from me but were in completely different life trajectories because of their education quality. It made me extremely aware of the power of education and what it had done for my family, so when I went to college, I joined Teach for America to become part of the solution.

After college, I started teaching at Markham Middle School in 2008, but I got laid off along with 70% of our staff because of seniority-based layoffs. I worked with Mayor Villaragosa and others to sue the school district on behalf of my students, arguing that these layoffs disproportionately impacted poor kids of color in Reed v. State of California.

We ended up winning and settling the lawsuit, and this victory made me think about how limited my scope for impact was in the classroom and how much more change I had brought to the whole district with this case. I ended up going off to law school on a civil rights scholarship and worked at the ACLU, the U.S. Attorney’s Office, and the Obama White House. I’m now a licensed attorney in California, but instead of suing school districts to make good decisions, I chose to go work for the school district and make better decisions at the beginning.

That ultimately led me to do parent organizing and consulting for organizations like Teach Plus and Educators for Excellence and later run for school board in 2017. I’ve now been on the LAUSD Board for almost nine years, running for a final term this year.

What have been some of your proudest achievements during your time serving on the board?

I’m proud of the achievement that we’ve had with our literacy progress. When I got elected to the board, we didn’t have any board goals or a strategic plan. Since then, we have developed four board goals that drive the current strategic plan, and one of them focuses around literacy. We’ve become more aligned on what goals we’re trying to hit for literacy, so it’s no surprise that the district’s literacy progress has improved in the last few years.

Another critical achievement for me has been Universal TK and our expansion of preschool. Getting more kids into TK and preschool is really important so that we’re not having to catch them up too much once they finally enter kindergarten. We also have infant centers we’re trying to expand, and in my board district alone, we have reopened several early education centers that had been closed for twenty years.

I’m also proud to have brought the cell phone ban policy to the district. Everyone’s doing it now, but at the time, it was not a popular policy. Soon, I will be continuing to address screen time in the classroom more broadly in an upcoming resolution about getting rid of screens for students under second grade. I’m really proud of that because it will not only lead to academic improvements for kids but also increased mental health support. (Update: The resolution to restrict screen time in schools passed unanimously on April 21, 2026.)

What message would you like to share with our families, and how can families partner or work alongside you?

What I try to remind parents is that I work for them, not the other way around. For families and parents who have felt very disenfranchised, that dynamic is always weird for them, but it’s true. When I visit classrooms and explain the school board to students, I tell them that their parents are my bosses. This is why I always encourage families to reach out and get to know their LAUSD board office and school staff so we can hear directly from them.

If you want to partner with us, come to us with a “let’s work together to solve a problem” mindset. Speak up so that we know you need something and can work together. We can’t fix problems we’re not aware of, especially in such a big district, so tell us about them and give us an opportunity to address it. That’s what the board is here to do. Get in contact with BD4 here.

In times like these, what gives you hope?

Being out with kids and families is always the most hopeful act. No matter what’s going on in the world, being in classrooms with kids who are there to learn and teachers who are helping out is inspiring.

With the federal government failing us almost across the board, all the local governments and coalitions coming together to fill gaps during these tough times give me hope. There’s also a lot of leaders, community members, and organizations like Families In Schools who have stepped up in big ways during this current moment.

I find hope in the district as well. Since I was a teacher eighteen years ago, it’s become so much more responsive and parent-and-student-driven. There are still tons of challenges that we have to stay aware of, but we also have to celebrate the victories when we can. Objectively, most kids still can’t read, do math, or do science at grade level. However, we’re finally moving in the right direction, with our test scores above every other district in the state. That gives me a lot of hope.