Founder Representative

David Rosenstein is an Original Founder of New West Charter Middle School. He is also the President and Founder of Intex Solutions, Inc. a commercial carpet, textile and upholstery cleaning company. Intex seeks to be a model of environmentally and socially responsible practices and David tries to bring those values to his work on the New West Governance Council. He is the chair of the New West "Green Team" and is proud of the school's accomplishments in working towards being a "green school".  David graduated with Honors in Anthropology from U.C. Santa Cruz and worked closely with Native American children during his thesis project on the differential learning modalities between Native American and Anglo children. He has 3 children and is active in a number of environmental non-profits working towards creating a sustainable future for all children.

Administrative Representative

Sharon Weir has extensive expertise in the areas of education, pedagogy and organizational management in the non-profit sector managing multi-million dollar budgets. Dr. Weir's management style emphasizes collaboration and builds on the strength and leadership abilities of all parties. With over 22 year in education, teaching, organizational change management, finance, negotiation and mediation she has helped lead New West to become one of the highest performing middle schools in Los Angeles. Dr. Weir has gained national and international experience with excellent interpersonal and communication skills with an expertise in working with diversity in the educational sector.

Administrative Representative

My name is Tanisha M. Barnett and I have been a part of New West since January 2004. I've had the pleasure of teaching 6th grade Social Studies and now I am currently the Assistant Principal. I enjoy serving on the board because I play a vital role in making important decisions concerning the well being of our students.

Teacher Representative

My name is Brandi Turnbow. I teach sixth grade science here at New West. This will be my 8th year at New West and my 11th year teaching. I grew up in Salt Lake City, Utah, and moved to Los Angeles in 1998. I love earth science and environmental science. I have a master’s degree in education with a focus on science from California State University Northridge.  I enjoy outdoor activities, such as: snowboarding, surfing, beach volleyball, rock-climbing, camping, and hiking. I also enjoy gardening, cooking, and watching/playing Jeopardy. I have two dogs and one cat who are all super old (they are all over 100 years for their respective breeds). Mostly I just enjoy, enjoying life!s. Brandi Turn

Teacher Representative

Since as long as I can remember I wanted to be a teacher. I naturally gravitated toward teaching math due to the inspiration of my high school math teacher who was not only an excellent teacher but also a phenomenal human being. After graduating high school in South Africa I moved to Los Angeles to attend college. I received a Bachelors Degree in Cultural Anthropology and later a Mathematics Teaching Credential from UCLA. My teaching career began in 2001 for the Los Angeles Unified School District teaching pre-algebra and algebra. This year I am excited to be a member of the New West Charter community. My favorite things to do (besides teaching) are swimming in the ocean, running at the beach, playing tennis, and reading.

Teacher Representative

I was born and raised in Moorpark, CA. I attended college at Sacramento State where I earned my undergraduate degree in Criminal Justice. After graduating I spent two years working for Macerich, a property management company, training their security personnel. During this same period I also worked part-time as a Physical Education Specialist at an elementary school. I have been working at New West since the fall of 2008 where I am currently the data systems coordinator and the assistant director for physical education.

Parent Representative

Mitchell Wong is an Associate Professor at UCLA in the School of Medicine. He is a general internist and health services researcher whose research focuses on understanding the impact of social factors like poverty and education on health behaviors and outcomes. He currently is conducting an NIH research project looking at the impact of Green Dot Charter high schools on risky health behaviors among adolescents living in poor neighborhoods.

Mitchell is founder and president of Act4Education, a parent-led non-profit 501(c)(3) organization that seeks to promote and maintain outstanding public school education for a diverse community in West Los Angeles through a partnership among public schools, parents, and the local government and community. He has a daughter in the 6th grade at New West and a son in the 3rd grade at Warner Avenue Elementary School.

Parent Representative

Kirk Lazaruk and his wife are the parents of new 6th grader at New West. Kirk is the co-founder of Heritage Development Partners LLC as well as a principal at Heltzer Development Company. Kirk's has been an active real estate professional since 1983. Involving all aspects of Real Estate purchase, entitlement, permitting and construction; it is anticipated that this experience will help with the relocation and expansion of NWCMS. Kirk has a degree from UCSB in Environmental Studies and is lending that experience to the New West "Green Team".

Additionally, Kirk is active on several Boards of Directors and provides governance on a $2 Billion project involving real estate assets, environmental resources and sensitive Hawaiian cultural resources. Kirk also brings experience of being one of the founders of a cutting edge internet technology company.

Kirk is a strong supporter of youth sports and has over 15 years coaching experience for youth basketball, soccer and water polo teams. Using his national and internationally water polo experience, he is assisting with the development of a youth water polo team on the Westside.

Parent Representative

I own a small packaging and printing company in West Los Angeles that does a mix of work from labels and cartons to books for both non-profit and commercial organizations, many in the specialty food and consumer products.  I was born and raised in the Westwood area and was a history major at UCLA where I met my wife.  Before that I had attended local public schools and as such was thrilled to see New West become our new school.  With three boys ages 12, 10 and 5, my best school evenings are when I can coax everybody to do their homework, practice their cello, and not fight with each other.  We love soccer and I have coached many teams over the years, hoping I can guide the team to play well together and enjoy the experience.

Having served three years as the Treasurer of Warner Elementary School's PTO, I really like being involved and am thrilled to have been given a place on the Governance Council.  I am currently also serving on the finance committee for our church's preschool. We feel very lucky to be at New West during this special time in its history and I hope that we can help make a difference in the public school system.

Parent Representative

My daughter is a New West student.  I am chairing the external fundraising subcommittee, which is focused on raising funds from the outside community for the New West expansion.  Previously, I served on the PTO Board of Directors at my daughter’s elementary school for 4 years, including 3 as the Vice President.  I was primarily responsible for finance and administration of our PTO, which grew from an annual budget of over $200,000 per year to over $800,000 per year.

I have served on the Board of Directors of a large non-profit organization in Los Angeles for over 20 years, including serving on the Executive Committee and chairing the Finance, Fund Development, and Program Committees among others.  Professionally, I am the Chief Financial Officer for a family office and previously served as the Chief Financial Officer of a venture capital firm.  I graduated from UCLA twice, once with a Bachelors degree in Psychology and the second time with an MBA.

Community Representative

Kerry Golub is a second generation Los Angelino and is a Deputy Public Defender for the County of Los Angeles. She is the mother of two. Her eldest son, Daniel, graduated from New West in 2009 and her youngest son, Noah, is in 8th Grade. Kerry was elected to the Governance Council two years ago as a parent representative and has served as Co-Chair of the Governance Council since last year. On the Council, her primary area of focus is fundraising and she is Co-Chair of the Fundraising Committee. She came to New West with a long history of school volunteerism and is committed to making public school a positive experience for all.

Community Representative

Bob Zaugh has been an active part of New West since just before New West opened. His son was in the first class of sixth graders and his daughter graduated from New West in 2008. He believes in being a worker among workers. He believes that doing the smallest thing over and over contributes to the growth of any social organization. Thus, he has done traffic control for seven years and has allowed him to see firsthand the amazing school that we have created.

He graduated from UCLA in political science and dropped out of grad school to organize against the war. He cofounded Peace Press, a worker owned printing and publishing company that worked with hundreds of groups in the sixties through the eighties.

He currently works in publishing with Bongo Entertainment. He is on the board of Ashgrove Music Foundation and is involved with other organizations such as Farm Vets.org

Community Representative

Bessy Wong is a partner in the business management practice of Nigro, Karlin, Segal & Feldstein, a CPA firm in Century City with one of the leading business management practices in the U.S. Bessy has the responsibility for managing the business and financial affairs of many high net worth and high net income clients, many of whom include high profile entertainment industry actors, actresses, musicians, composers, producers, directors. Prior to joining NKSF, Bessy worked as an auditor for four years after graduating from University of Southern California in 1985.

Bessy has been volunteering in different capacities at New West Charter Middle School since 2004. Her two daughters both graduated from New West. Bessy was one of the parents who started and co-chaired the NW annual silent auction fund raising event in 2004.

Wanting to give back to the community and show her appreciation to NW for giving the children a fine education Bessy is currently serving on the New West Governing Board as a Community Representative. She also acts as the financial liaison with the business managers for the school. Prior to this position Bessy served as the Parent Representative on the board while her daughters were attending New West.

Bessy also volunteers at the Annual Venice Art Walk and Auctions to help raise funds for the Venice Family Clinic, a free clinic that provides comprehensive health care to the people in need.