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Roberta Weintraub, a time-honored civic leader and former LA school board member with deep roots in the San Fernando Valley, died on Jan. 1, 2019. She was 83.
She first gained notoriety as an activist against school-busing in the 1970s, and went on to champion issues of education and law enforcement across ideological lines. Weintraub represented the east Valley on the Los Angeles Unified School District board before she was elected president four times during her 14-year tenure on the dais. Following an unsuccessful run for City Council in 1995, she undertook an array of ambitious projects that melded her passions for law enforcement and education.
In a partnership between the Los Angeles Police Department and LA Unified, she founded the Police Academy Magnet School Program that exists at nine schools across the city today. The program offers a police-officer-led high school curriculum to students interested in pursuing a career in law enforcement.
In 2007 she started the Police Orientation Preparation Program (POPP), a two-year associate’s degree program for high school grads not yet of age to join the ranks of the...