Seven candidates vying for two seats on the Santa Barbara Unified School District Board of Education have participated in a wide-ranging debate about closing the achievement gap, district finances and superintendent leadership.
Two positions on the five-member board are on the Nov. 6 ballot. One is currently held by Kate Parker, who is running for a seat on the Santa Barbara City College Board of Trustees. The other is occupied by Ismael Paredes Ulloa, who is campaigning for a second term.
Ulloa and fellow candidates Mark Alvarado, Kate Ford and Rose Muñoz took part in a forum hosted by journalist Jerry Roberts. Ulloa did not appear in person, but instead called into the forum via telephone.
In a separately filmed debate, candidates Ricardo Cota, Bonnie Raisin and Jill Rivera also appeared on the show. An eighth candidate, Jim Gribble, was out of the country and unavailable to appear either on the show or to call in.
Both panels were filmed for the community access television show Newsmakers, and will air over the next several weeks.
Ford, a former principal at Peabody Charter School, spoke most directly — and critically — about the district and Superintendent Cary Matsuoka.
“It is quite clear there are fiscal issues in the district,” she said. “The achievement level of students is not what it should be, and there isn’t a real strong, viable plan to lessen that achievement gap.
“The involvement in the community is minimal and the understanding about what the board does and what he does has been minimal.”
Ford and Alvarado are backed by the parents group Save Our Schools, which rallied in support of Ed Behrens, who, at Masuoka’s recommendation to the school board, was removed as principal of San Marcos High School earlier this year.
Behrens was caught up in the district’s controversial response to online threats and a video of a male San Marcos High student allegedly verbally abusing and threating to harm female students. Soon after, the school board voted 4-1 to demote him, and he is now an elementary school teacher.
The current school board contest is likely to come down to a four-way race between Ford and Alvarado, endorsed by the parents group, and Muñoz and Ulloa, who have been endorsed by the Santa Barbara County Democratic Party.
Ulloa, who voted in favor of Behrens’ removal, described the action as a tough decision.
“What’s popular is not always the best thing, and what’s the best thing is not always popular,” he said. “It was the best for our community as a whole and as a district, including San Marcos.”
Ford, however, said Ulloa’s characterization is tone deaf to the situation.
“I would have to disagree,” she said. “I don’t think this about making unpopular decisions or doing something that is difficult.
“I don’t know the particulars of it. However, there is a strong belief that many members of the board stonewalled the community, and the superintendent was not transparent enough even in how the decision was made, and there was a lot of fingerpointing and nothing more than that. I don’t think this issue is over.”
Ford said she wants the board to “do its job.”
“That means,” she said, “the board has to be extremely knowledgeable, has to be great communicators, has to be willing to ask difficult questions and expect very honest, real answers.
“It can’t be status quo. It can’t be just a rubber-stamp board. The bottom line is that the board is responsible for the supervision and the support and the evaluation of the superintendent, and I don’t shy away from doing that.”
Ulloa, who was appointed to the school board after trustee Monique Limón was elected to the Assembly, said he wants to include parents in the education process.
“I want to see that our parents are able to engage with our schools, feel more welcome so they are part of their educational journey,” he said. “There are some things we are doing well and some things we need to continue to work on.”
Alvarado hit hard at closing the achievement gap — the widening distance in test scores between white students and many Latinos.
Calling it not a gap but a “Grand Canyon,” he pushed for earlier music education in the elementary schools, and ways to add more time in the classroom, even year-round possibilities.
“I really want to represent the Mexicano families in Santa Barbara and create that pathway for their kids to be successful and create more parental engagement,” Alvarado said.
Muñoz, who raised two daughters in the school district, spoke mostly in generalities.
“I am of the community and for the community,” she said.
Muñoz added that trustees should be “talking with each other rather than at each other in terms of collaborating at the school board level, and within the schools and within the community.”
Raisin came across as the most politically conservative.
She, along with Rivera, criticized a proposed $300,000 contract under which the nonprofit Just Communities Central Coast would provide the district with equity and cultural proficiency, implicit bias training and English learner and parent engagement.
“I want to say this in a diplomatic way,” Raisin said. “I think that probably trying to reach the lowest common denominator, including children who have not developed adequate language skills, we perhaps are neglecting maybe those who are achieving at higher levels.
“I am just wondering if we are neglecting a certain group of children for the sake of others.”
Regarding the achievement gap, Raisin said there should be a better way to teach to all students.
“It is not really fair to the children,” she said. “I also think that at the expense of the children who do read well and have accomplished basic mathematics, that they should be rewarded in some way. Pulling down those who have the skills to match the skills who don’t is a gross injustice to both groups.”
As for Matsuoka, she said, “I think there must be tremendous demands on him.”
Cota, a Santa Paula Unified School District teacher, said that, if elected, he would put students first.
“A lot of time decisions are made with adult thinking and never putting their mindset into is this what a student would want?” Cota suggested. “Is this best for students?”
Rivera, a banking executive, said the district can find better ways to spend its money than on the Just Communities services.
“I look for opportunities to add value and improve operational efficiences,” she said, “so I would take that lens and apply it to the school board.”
The shows will air in a 90-minute block from Sept. 28 – Nov. 3, on TVSB. It is also available on the Newsmakers YouTube Channel.
— 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.
