In Santa Barbara, there’s a three-way battle for a vacant seat on the Santa Barbara Unified School District Board of Education.
Efigenia Banales, Gabe Escobedo and Dan La Berge are vying for an open spot in District 1, to manage a district that is experiencing massive turnover in administration and senior leadership, while the superintendent has faced significant criticism from teachers and others in the past year.
Banales has strong conservative values and is a vocal critic of Teen Talk and the district’s sexual education program. She also wants to advocate for Latino children, who she says are neglected by the district.
At the heart of the challenges facing the district is a battle over student performance, literacy and sex education. Two of the candidates, Escobedo and La Berge, are Democrats and largely agree on the challenges and issues facing the district. The differences between the two are more about their experience, personal history and style.
According to district data, white students across the board score about 18% higher than Latino students in math and about 24 points higher on the English standardized achievement test.
The election is Nov. 8.
Efi Banales
An immigrant from Mexico, Banales worked at the district for nearly 30 years and says she is “uniquely qualified” for the position.
“I am running because our schools are failing not only the Latino community but children in general,” Banales said. “I see the need for children’s education to prepare them for real-world situations in a fun and safe environment. Our district is doing a very poor job in both areas. I would like to accomplish better outcomes for all our students, encourage and facilitate parental involvement, and provide more support for teachers in the classrooms.”
Banales retired from the district a year ago, after working jobs as an elementary school office coordinator, a bilingual/special education paraeducator and a parent facilitator. A parent and grandparent, she participated in dozens of school and parent community meetings over the years.
One of her goals is to improve test scores and literacy rates. She advocates for the Orthon-Gillingham model, a “direct, explicit, multisensory, structured, sequential, diagnostic and prescriptive way to teach literacy when reading, writing and spelling do not come easily to individuals, such as those with dyslexia,” according to the program’s website.
“I believe we should teach the science of learning instead of balanced literacy,” Banales said. “We need to prioritize reading, writing, math and English in the time that we have with our students. All children can learn when the resources are present, from special education to regular students, to gifted and talented. All children have a gift, and we have the moral obligation to explore it and let it flourish to the fullest.”
She’s also been critical of the school district’s decision to use the Teen Talk curriculum for sex education in high schools.
“Teen Talk is not appropriate for our students,” Banales said. “Teen Talk waters down the consequences of sexual exploration and is too explicit, too graphic, and for some cultures even offensive. I do not know why the board chose to purchase this Teen Talk with so much pushback.”
She said she prefers a different program, called the HEART curriculum, and that it should be taught by nurses and/or local retired doctors, instead of physical education teachers.
“P.E. teachers already have their hands full teaching sports and teamwork, amongst other things,” Banales said.
In her comments to Noozhawk, she said she is an authentic candidate with no other motives for seeking the school board seat.
“I’m a mother, a wife and a grandmother, not a politician looking for the next opportunity,” Banales said. “Educating children is my life. They will be my focus.”
Gabe Escobedo
His star is on the rise. He’s the chair of the Santa Barbara Planning Commission and recently finished a term as the chair of the Community Formation Commission, which sought to bring a civilian review board to Santa Barbara.
Now, he’s running for the school board, and he has the wind at his back. Escobedo said he wants to bring his experience of being raised by a single mother and growing up poor in Los Angeles.
“This district is our first and only majority-minority district,” Escobedo said. “It contains both the Eastside and Westside of Santa Barbara. I am running for this office because I understand the challenges that so many of these students and families are facing.”
He said he has been fortunate to have people who have helped him over the years, but that he also knows “what it’s like not to feel like school is for you.”
Escobedo said he brings a cultural understanding to the position and can relate to the Latinx population, which makes up about 60% of the district.
“I was lucky, but our students’ futures should not rely on luck,” Escobedo said. “My goal is that every student walks into their class with a sense of belonging and all the resources and support they need to be successful in our schools and far beyond. I will focus on raising our early literacy rates, expanding our career technical education programs, and bringing social-emotional learning programs to every campus.”
Escobedo, who works as a Student Affairs director at UC Santa Barbara, said he supports the science of reading to help improve students’ learning.
“We can do much better by working together, embracing the best of scientific research, and collaborating with community members who can share their wisdom and expertise about the crucial issue of addressing literacy,” Escobedo said. “The district has a literacy task force, and I intend to ensure that tangible, timely goals come from their work.”
He also supports the Teen Talk curriculum.
“Teen Talk is a comprehensive, peer-reviewed and age-appropriate sex education curriculum,” Escobedo said. “Teen Talk meets the stringent state requirements set by the California Healthy Youth Act. It covers important topics like anatomy, abstinence, STIs and consent.”
He said some people in the community have spread “misinformation about the content of the curriculum.”
“If elected, I would expand the communication with families about the Teen Talk curriculum to clear up any confusion created by the misinformation,” Escobedo said.
Dan La Berge
La Berge is a parent of children at Adelante Charter, a dual-language Spanish immersion school.
“As a parent of three children in the district, I can firsthand witness the true struggles and stress that our children are facing,” La Berge said. “I have served on multiple school boards and am both comfortable and experienced asking difficult questions of those in positions of leadership. Also, as a parent, I am the best candidate to serve as a liaison from parents to the other board members, superintendent and cabinet members.”
He’s the co-founder of Mother’s Helpers, a nonprofit organization that provides cribs, strollers, blankets and bouncers to mothers in need.
La Berge said he does not have “unrealistic expectations” of what he can do as a school board member.
“I am grateful that our board is filled with such diverse and experienced membership, such that I will have an opportunity to learn under their tutelage,” La Berge said. “I will seek to expand board outreach and transparency, and I will also champion every opportunity available to challenge the status quo regarding the district’s approach to literacy and overall issues surrounding our poor academic achievement.”
La Berge said his experience of raising three children has helped him understand that there isn’t just one approach toward educating students. All three of his children learn in different ways, he said.
“The district must push back against anything that limits our ability to recognize the same diversity in the near 13,000 students that attend our schools,” La Berge said. “I will push for early assessments for reading deficiencies and dyslexia and for a multi-tiered approach to introducing literacy.”
He said this approach “would include opportunities to approach literacy goals utilizing phonics, a queuing system and bilingual literacy.”
La Berge also supports Teen Talk.
“All peer-reviewed data supports that this education provides the best tools to ensure that our youth are delaying engaging in sexual activities which helps to reduce the transmission of sexually transmitted infections, teen pregnancies and empowers our youth to understand both sides of the concept of consent and their responsibilities to abide by it,” La Berge said. “Currently, the Teen Talk curriculum that has been adopted by the district meets all these criteria effectively and with age-appropriate, science-backed information. I understand that some families feel that the way the information is being conveyed may not be appropriate for their children and support the options the district has provided for them to opt out.”
— Noozhawk staff writer Joshua Molina can be reached at jmolina@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.
