INGLEWOOD — You might have to be a child of the 1970s and before but there was a time when dedicated members of the teaching profession would shape two or three generations of family minds.

For instance, educators like Peter Somberg, a near 15-year veteran at Beulah Payne Elementary School, where he teaches a bilingual, cross cultural language and development specialty.

While lawmakers in Sacramento are still wrestling over the budget, which was supposed to be signed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger before July 1, a new school term gets under way Aug. 30, Somberg will be teaching the 3-year-old of a boy he taught 14 years ago.

But Somberg, 52, a divorced father of a 17-year-old high school senior, won’t just be teaching this year.

The Chicago-born son of a stockbroker and junior high school teacher, who after obtaining a Spanish and Literature degree at UCLA would trade the finance industry for education, will be helping to shape district policy as the new president of the Inglewood Teachers Association.

Elected July 1 for an initial two-year term, Somberg will be working with new district Superintendent Gary McHenry, who took office in January, and a school board that apart from newcomer Cindy Giardina has been there for a while.

Below he talks to Olu Alemoru about the agenda he ran on, his key priorities and why teaching became such a passion.

How did you get into teaching?

PS: I used to work for the investment company, Drexel Burnham Smith Barney, and got into education by chance after a serious accident I had on my motorbike. Recovering from my injuries I ran out of disability coverage and my daughter was due in March 1993. My accountant told me I needed to get a job.
I got a job at Worthington Elementary School in Los Angeles intending to work part-time, but they said you speak Spanish why don’t you get a [teaching] degree and I got emergency credentials and have been teaching ever since.

What platform did you run on for the election?

PS: I ran on a team platform, not just to protect the contracts of our members, but continue the expansion of the ITA’s motto: “Giving every child everyday to succeed.”

So, our number one goal is to expand our programs. We understand there are budget shortfalls and hard times for everybody. We’re willing to make sacrifices to save programs in schools, but we have to question whether our tax dollars are being used in the classroom.

For instance, we wonder why the administration of our district has seen fit to [recently] add four or five highly paid new administrators to look at classroom data, when we have teachers capable of doing that themselves.

This is at a time when you’re asking all stakeholders; teachers, classifieds, principals, students and parents, to take cuts.

However, according to a spokeswoman for IUSD, the incoming administrators replaced a number of retired staff who took retirement on June 30.

Nearly the entire senior administration staff qualified for retirement at the same time and as a cost saving to the district they all took advantage of it.

What are your goals for the district?

PS: Our biggest priority is to expand education opportunities, not just test scores. We want multiple measures of intelligence and knowledge, not just learning how to become good test takers, but to be equipped like all the other children in the state to meet the needs of the 21st century.

If you keep decimating so many so-called elective programs — like art, music and sports — in middle and high school, how do you build a whole child.

I live in Manhattan Beach and my daughter is extremely lucky that I am in a community where education foundations support music and the arts.

Research on human brains has shown, for example, that music increases the natural ability to problem solve. Local parents here may not have the same resources, but it’s a bigger community and we could go out and raise awareness about the intrinsic joy of learning music.

Are you optimistic or pessimistic about the future of public school education in the city?

PS: I am optimistic, I take as much interest in the kids I teach as my own.
More than anything else, my goal is to get as many members of our bargaining unit and coalition of educators involved in looking at the long-term, global aspects of how we can improve the system. I think it is the civil rights issue of our time.