Attorney Dela Peykar Ronen has announced her candidacy for the Beverly Hills Unified School District (BHUSD) Board of Education, kicking off the race to fill three seats on the board.
Former Board Member Mary Wells vacated her seat after being elected to the Beverly Hills City Council in March, and incumbent Board President Dr. Amanda Stern, whose term expires in December, told the Courier she plans to run again. Board Member Noah Margo does not plan to seek reelection after his term expires in December, he said.
Ronen has lived most of her life in the city, after immigrating from Iran at the age of 5. A graduate of Hawthorne Middle School and Beverly Hills High School, Ronen continued to live in Beverly Hills while attending law school at USC. After getting married, she and her husband lived for a few years near Beverly Grove and near Westwood, before returning to Beverly Hills to raise their three children, one of whom is attending Hawthorne while the other two go to El Rodeo Elementary School.
She told the Courier that the strength of the community has been essential to her professional and personal success.
“I had amazing teachers from when I was a kid that I still get lunch with,” Ronen said. “Now experiencing that all over again through the eyes of my kids, it’s my turn to give back. I feel not just an obligation, but a pride to do that.”
Ronen is running on a platform of Excellence in Education, as she looks to restore BHUSD’s standing as one of the country’s preeminent school districts. Though she acknowledges the district’s reputation has slipped since she was a student, due in part to outdated facilities and the COVID-19 pandemic, there have been recent strides she wants to push further.
She cited the Pathways for Success program, which gives middle and high school students opportunities to gain real-world experience in fields ranging from fashion design to medicine, as a prime example. If elected to the board, Ronen plans to find new community relationships, offering students even more pathways to explore.
“I think it’s the right opportunity now to really focus on that, and really focus on seeing how those pathways can be best implemented, with the goal that we’re going to be the top tier,” Ronen said.
As AI continues to evolve, Ronen sees the technology as another opportunity for innovation, though district officials also must stay on the cutting edge on how to reduce AI’s potential harms, she said. She says that her career as a trust and estates attorney positions her to lead this charge.
“My background … with estates and people’s trusts, is finding ways to stay innovative, and I think that has to be implemented … when we’re dealing with AI and tech,” Ronen said. “I think it’s also really, really important to be with people who understand that, and they’re willing and ready to do the work and research to keep up with it.”
Five Beverly Vista Middle School students were expelled in March for making and disseminating AI-generated nude pictures of their classmates, landing the district in the national conversation about AI’s potential dangers in the classroom.
Ronen also said that improved facilities are essential for maintaining the kind of community that makes BHUSD stand out, and she would again draw on her legal experience to ensure the district’s construction projects remain on time and within budget.
She said that in recent years, the district has made significant improvements to be more transparent about its construction spending and signing better contracts, and Ronen said she was committed to staying this course and being open with the community if setbacks happen.
While Ronen lauded BHUSD board members and the district’s construction staff for moving fast to open the new El Rodeo Elementary School campus, she thinks the district needs to put an equal priority on finishing work at Beverly Hills High School.
According to a May 2024 construction update, the modernization of buildings B3 and B4 is underway, Building C and the drop-off area are in the pre-construction phase, and construction officials are working on the planning and design of the South Site Athletic Facilities and the Grand Lawn.
“When we have a situation where we feel like we’re under construction still, it’s hard to get that high school to feel like home,” Ronen said.
Ronen has run for a seat on the board before. She filed nomination papers two years ago, but quickly withdrew after realizing that campaigning was a much more involved process than she realized.
This time around, Ronen feels much more prepared for the campaign. She has spoken to people who served on the board about their experiences and served for the past year on the Beverly Hills Education Foundation, where she learned about the intricacies that make the district thrive.
“It gave me the confidence to think, ‘OK, if I can help here, then maybe I can help in other parts as well,”’ Ronen said.
The election is scheduled for Nov. 5, and residents can file nomination forms with the Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk starting July 15.
