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Yahoo!With more than 16,500 students attending schools from Goleta to Montecito, there is arguably no local election of more sweeping importance than that of the Santa Barbara School District Board of Education. This November, three seats are up for grabs on the five-member board, as Laura Malakoff and Nancy Harter have opted not to seek re-election. Thus, the opportunity exists for a potentially drastic overnight change to a board that is charged with educating the future of Santa Barbara. Luckily, the six candidates vying for the open seats represent the most well-qualified field of School Board hopefuls the district has seen in many years-all of them well-known figures in the fabric of Santa Barbara's educational landscape. And the timing couldn't be better. After back-to-back years of multimillion dollar budget cuts, the district, according to Superintendent Brian Sarvis, is once again staring at the possibility of another bloodbath this spring. Add to that a tragic increase in youth gang activity, several schools dinged with No Child Left Behind violations, enduring achievement gap problems, and district-wide decreases in enrollment and you get a situation that desperately needs a strong and visionary Board of Education.
Paul Wellman
Susan Deacon
Susan Deacon
For what it's worth, Susan Deacon was the first candidate to announce her candidacy for the School Board election. A mother of two Dos Pueblos High graduates and an educator with 20-plus years under her belt as a community college professor-includÂ-ing several most recently at Santa Barbara City College's journalism department-Deacon felt an undeniable call to duty well before most of the other candidates had even pulled papers. "I see it as the perfect convergence of my experience as a parent and teacher," she said. "If I am ever going to do it, this is the time."
No stranger to the often politicized world of school board bureaucracy, Deacon is best known in education circles for being a driving force behind the South Coast Community Aquatic Center. Currently serving as the president of the nonprofit organization that presides over the facility, Deacon helped raise some $2 million for the effort. During the six-year process leading up to the pool's construction, Deacon said she learned much from working closely with district staff that would serve her should she get elected. "I know firsthand that there is the ability to make good things happen. You just can't ever give up," she said.
Endorsed by organizations such as PUEBLO, Planned Parenthood, the Santa Barbara Teachers Association, the Democratic Party of Santa Barbara County, and many former and current Santa Barbara School Board members and administrators, Deacon said the solution to many of the district's problems is better communication with staff and a renewed focus on the programs and practices the district already has in place. "It's not like we have to re-invent the wheel" Deacon said. "I think it ultimately comes down to what goes on in the classroom. Smart teachers and great principals can go along way."
Paul Wellman
Jacqueline Inda
Jacqueline Inda
The most pressing issue in the School Board election is most certainly youth violence. Perhaps the candidate who best understands this reality is Jacqueline Inda. A born and raised Santa Barbaran, Inda spent her childhood in the "ghetto parts of town," as she puts it, bouncing between foster care, probation, and even time in a gang. Now with two children of her own as well as a foster daughter, Inda works as case manager and family advocate for the Family Service Agency-a job that not only has her spending significant time at all the high schools in the district, including continuation high school El Puente, but also often puts her in direct communication with the families and children hit hardest by gang activity.
Inda was handpicked to run for the School Board by the recently formed organization Esperanza, a largely Latino grassroots coalition of around 250 parents and students from Westside and Eastside neighborhoods committed to eliminating the gang problem. "There are a lot of things that need to change [in the district]. All too often the reality check is not there for the board-they rarely get to the real root of the issue," Inda said. "Ultimately, I think the role of the board is to be a voice for the parents." To that end, Inda said she would take an unflinching look at the district's programs and figure out what works, at least in the eyes of teachers, students, and parents.
While she readily admits that she "never ever" saw herself as a School Board candidate, Inda is confident in her ability to do the job. "My heart has always pulled toward helping kids and advocating for them. That is never going to change, no matter what," Inda said.
Paul Wellman
Ed Heron
Ed Heron
You would be hard pressed to find a candidate who is better-connected with the people who call the shots in Santa Barbara than Ed Heron. A recently retired real estate magnate, this grandfather of seven said he felt compelled to run for the School Board after reading in The Independent that, with only a few days to go before the registration deadline for this election, there were more seats up for grabs than actual candidates. While Heron acknowledges that serious work needs to be done on things like the achievement gap and schoolkids joining gangs, all roads lead back to that which has bedeviled the district for much of the past few years: fiscal management. "People want dependability, consistency, and trustworthiness from a school board, and I don't think they have that right now" Heron said. As a former director and Audit Committee member for financial institutions like Mid-State Bank & Trust, Heron is uniquely qualified to talk fiscal shop-and he said he won't be afraid to do so should he get elected.
As part of his platform, this Santa Barbara High School alumnus also pledges to "funnel as much money as possible straight to the classroom," to prioritize technology, and to protect music, math, and science programs. After working recently as president of the Partners in Education and its Computer for Families program, Heron sees a glaring hole in the district's use of technology as both a teaching and an administrative tool. To his credit, Heron admits that he may not be the most up-to-speed to certain education-specific issues, but he is confident that that wouldn't be a deterrent to him fulfilling School Board duties. "I think I can make a difference. I am a person who works tirelessly for the things I believe in," he explained. "I have no aspirations to be anything else other than a good School Board member." Heron has been endorsed by, among others, the Santa Barbara Teachers Association, the Santa Barbara Chamber of Commerce, Mayor Marty Blum, former School Board member Bob Pohl, current member Bob No»l, and Hope School District Superintendent Gerry Fausett.
Paul Wellman
Kate Smith
Kate Smith
Hopeful School Board candidate Kate Smith was only half joking when she suggested she be interviewed over a pitcher of margaritas for this profile because, as she put it, "I am much better that way." No stranger to the public comment sessions at the Tuesday night board meetings, Smith is the only candidate running who has had a restraining order levied against her by district officials. That being said, this credentialed teacher, mother of two, and lifelong educational crusader has no shortage of motivation for seeking election to a board she has spent many nights in recent years haranguing for its perceived shortcomings. Championing what she calls a "new school paradigm," Smith is the self-described "Paul Revere" of this year's election, spreading the gospel of successful alternative educational experiments like Starr King Parent-Child Workshop preschool and Santa Barbara's Open Alternative elementary school.
Proudly declaring that she has been endorsed by nobody, Smith, by her own admission, is using her candidacy to call attention to the so-called "school-to-prison pipeline"-a social process in which students, oftentimes economically disadvantaged ones, get labeled as "bad kids" by entities like the Truancy Program or the Gang Task force and wind up in a vicious cycle of trouble and punishment that eventually sees them go from public schools to behind bars without any real consideration of their individual needs. Besides hoping to get things like yoga, tai chi, and hip-hop taught in gym classes, Smith also is calling for Individual Development Plans for all students in the district regardless of their success or lack thereof. "Each kid is special, and it is time the district realizes that," Smith said. "We need to help them grow into their minds, their bodies, and their spirits"
Paul Wellman
Annette Cordero
Annette Cordero
With the motto of "There is still a lot of work to be done," Annette Cordero is the only incumbent seeking reelection to the five-member School Board this year. Cordero, who was elected to her one previous term in 2004 after serving as an interim replacement for former boardmember Ruth Green, sees her role now much as she did then. "I still speak for a large segment of the community that might not otherwise have a voice on the board: the working class, teachers, and Latinos."
To that end, Cordero, a professor at Santa Barbara City College, has played a vocal, if not occasionally frustrated, role during recent board meetings about the ever-pressing issue of gangs. Admitting that she has "mixed emotions" about the district's handling of the current situation, Cordero sees the district's role not as a law enforcement agency or some extension of a social service. Instead, she said she'd rather the district focused its attention on re-engaging children into education. "I am happy with the fact that the district has taken on the responsibility of dealing with the issue, but I don't think we have or are even close to having a comprehensive plan. : Too often we take simple approaches to very complex problems."
Cordero, who occasionally falls into bickering battles with fellow board member No»l, said she likes, for the most part, the direction the board is moving these days, specifically regarding budget issues. But she also opines that she and her fellow trustees "have not done nearly enough" to close the achievement gap that has long afflicted many of the district's junior high and high school campuses. But perhaps the most refreshing thing about Cordero's candidacy was her answer to a question about her biggest regrets from her first term on the board. She explained that she thought the board, herself included, "dropped the ball" when they decided to cut the long-running and popular Junior Reserve Officers' Training Corps (JROTC) program at Santa Barbara High three years ago. Calling it a "decision that had to be made," Cordero was upset with the fact that the board had not worked harder to take the loss of the program and make sure that something even better emerged in its place. She hopes that another term on the board will give her more opportunity take the lessons learned and be an even more effective board member.
Cordero has been endorsed by, among others, PUEBLO, the Santa Barbara Teachers Association, Planned Parenthood, and current school board members Laura Malakoff, Kate Parker, and Nancy Harter.
Paul Wellman
Charlotte Ware
Charlotte Ware
Charlotte Ware is a math nerd and proud of it. A former systems engineer for General Motors, Ware has spent much of the past 15 years volunteering on several campuses in the Santa Barbara District as her two daughters worked through the system. But now, with her youngest set to graduate this spring, this recent past-president of Dos Pueblos High School's Parent Teacher Student Association (PTSA) is taking her involvement to the next level.
Admittedly reluctant to run at first, Ware says she finally caved in to pressure from several teachers, administrators, and former school board members a few months ago. "This is the time in my life when I have the most hands-on experience to offer," she said. By her own count, thanks to all her work with the PTSA, Ware figures she has spent meaningful time on every junior high and high school campus in the district every year for the past seven years. Add to that a self-described love for talking about education, and you begin to see why career educators urged her to run.
If elected, Ware is hoping to draw upon her years of on-campus experience to help focus the board on using the tools and programs already in place in the district to tackle hot topic issues like gangs and the achievement gap. Pointing to things like the Parent Project, Fighting Back, and on-campus community student coordinators, Ware opines that "a lot of good programs already exist-we just need to beef them up and improve communication between campuses about what works and why." Ware has been endorsed by the Santa Barbara Chamber of Commerce and former Santa Barbara School Board member Lanny Ebenstein.
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