Your guide to the L.A. Unified Board of Education District 2 race: Roco Rivas vs. Raquel Zamora

Three seats — two contested — are on the June 2 primary ballot for the seven-member Los Angeles Unified School District Board of Education.The nation’s second-largest school system, with about 390,000 students, faces evolving challenges and uncertainties that could alter the direction of the district for years.In mid-April L.A.Unified officials barely averted a strike by agreeing to significant employee raises, rescinding about 200 layoffs and agreeing to hundreds of new hires of counselors, school psychologists and other student support staff.

The contracts with three district unions, including teachers, will cost nearly $1.2 billion a year, and board members now must find a way to pay for them amid budget pressures.Standardized test scores have trended upward since the nadir of the COVID-19 pandemic, recovering faster than the state average, but the pace remains too incremental for critics.The future of L.A.

schools Supt.Alberto Carvalho is uncertain.

He’s on paid administrative leave following FBI raids of his San Pedro home and downtown office.At least part of the investigation centers on a failed chatbot project that was supposed to revolutionize and individualize education.Carvalho said he’s done nothing wrong and would like to return to work.

If he does not return — and cannot serve out his new four-year contract — board members would select a superintendent.L.A.Unified also faces declining enrollment — which reduces state funding and increases pressure to save money by closing many campuses.Heightened federal immigration enforcement also has affected enrollment and attendance while creating anxiety that spills over into the classroom.

Officials responded by declaring L.A.Unified a sanctuary district — both for immigrants and for the LGBTQ+ community, which also has been a target of some conservative groups.

Carvalho’s central focus on improving test scores has led to increased tutoring, repeated diagnostic measures and phonics trai...