26 Dec EdSource: Big Decisions Ahead for New Leaders at West Contra Costa Unified

(Image courtesy of West Contra Costa Unified School District via Bay City News)

By Monica Velez, EdSource via Bay City News

In a ritual similar to ones happening in school districts across California, two new board members in the West Contra Costa Unified School District along with a reelected incumbent were sworn in at the board’s final meeting of the year — as it braced itself to take on the numerous challenges that await it in 2025.

Not unlike its larger neighbors in Oakland and San Francisco, these challenges include declining enrollments, budget deficits, and threatened deportation of undocumented immigrants affecting an unknown number of families in the district.

The district, which includes Richmond, El Cerrito, San Pablo and several other East Bay communities, was able to traverse its most immediate challenge — finding school board members to fill the three seats that were on the November ballot. Only one of the seats was contested, and in the other two, the candidates had no opponent, and didn’t even have to appear on the ballot.

>>>Election 2024:

WCCUSD School Board Candidates Talk Literacy, Accountability in Final Forums<<<

Guadalupe Enllana, a Richmond native and community advocate, was sworn in Wednesday night to represent Area 2, which covers the Richmond area, one of the nearly dozen cities in the East Bay communities within the district’s boundaries. She beat incumbent Otheree Christian, running for only his second term, with nearly 55% of the vote.

Cinthia Hernandez, who ran unopposed, replaced eight-year incumbent Mister Phillips in Area 3 which covers the San Pablo area. Incumbent Jamela Smith-Folds, who represents Pinole and Hercules in Area 1, was also sworn in for her second term, after running unopposed for the seat.

The pattern of unopposed school board seats is one that is occurring across the state. An EdSource analysis found that out of 1,510 school board races it analyzed, in nearly half of them a candidate’s name did not appear on last November’s ballot, either because no one was running for the seat or because a single candidate was running unopposed — making that person an instant winner.

One of the biggest decisions the West Contra Costa board will make is hiring a permanent superintendent. At Wednesday night’s meeting, longtime district employee Kim Moses attended her first meeting as interim superintendent, after being appointed by the board in October shortly after Superintendent Kenneth “Chris” Hurst announced he would be retiring in December after more than three years in the job. Hurst said he was leaving to be able to take care of his mother-law, who he said was facing “serious health challenges.”

Moses, a West Contra Costa alumna who graduated from Kennedy High School in Richmond, worked in the district for 18 out of the more than 30 years she’s been in education, most recently as its superintendent of business services. She worked for years as a teacher in Oakland, and then as vice principal and principal in the district.

“I welcome our new trustees. I actually really look forward to working with both of you,” said current board member Demetrio Gonzalez Hoy. “You’re coming in at a time when the board was fairly divided, as you both know. My hope is that with this change of two new board members that it would lead to us working in collaboration.”

One of the biggest rifts this year was during a June meeting when the board failed to pass the district’s Local Control Accountability Plan by the end of the fiscal year in June. The LCAP is a required document that describes how funds from the state will be spent, especially on low-income students and English learners. Because the board did not approve the LCAP, they could not vote on its annual budget as the accountability plan must pass first.

It is believed to be the first time that a district has failed to approve its LCAP by the state-imposed deadline. As then-Superintendent Hurst said at the time, “This is an unprecedented event in the state of California.”

In a frenzy of activity, district, county and state leaders had to work together to figure out the next steps, complicated by the fact that the state’s education code doesn’t spell out clearly what happens when a board doesn’t approve its accountability plan before June 30. After making revisions, the board was able to approve the updated plan on Aug. 28, nearly two months after the usual deadline.

At Wednesday’s meeting, the newly constituted board was able to resolve its first split vote, this one for board president. Gonzalez Hoy and another incumbent board member, Leslie Reckler, were both nominated for the position, to replace outgoing board President Smith-Folds, whose term as president had expired. Reckler was elected to the position, voting for herself along with Enllana and Hernandez. She will serve for one year.

As a mother of four children, first-time board member Enllana said she had to figure out how to navigate different programs in the district and advocate especially for her child who has special needs. It is what motivated her to run a second time to be on the board after running unsuccessfully in 2020.

“As parents, we are really left in the dark sometimes about decisions being made on the board that directly affect their children,” she said in an interview with EdSource. “I was a teen mom and at the time (and my child), having special needs, made it really difficult to navigate the (special education) department, how to advocate, and how to get the information I needed and how to ask for it.”

Enllana said her top priority is to hire a superintendent who values transparency, communicates well with the board and community, and prioritizes data-driven solutions.

“We have to make sure that every decision that we’re making on the board is student-focused, because if the students aren’t here, then we have no seat at the table,” Enllana said. “We really need to learn how to communicate with parents, and it’s not going to be a one-size-fits-all approach.”

As a daughter of Mexican immigrants, Enllana said she’s also hoping to better reach the Spanish-speaking community and engage them in what’s happening at the district level as well as their children’s schools.

At Wednesday’s meeting, newly inducted board member Hernandez said she grew up going to West Contra Costa schools and is focused on offering more transparency to families.

“I’m also dedicated to creating more access to our families and creating resources and making sure our families are walking with us every step of the way,” Hernandez said.

The defeat of Otheree Christian means there is now only one Black member on the board, in contrast to the three on the previous board. Of its approximately 30,000 students, nearly 60% are Latino, 14% are Asian, 11.5% are Black, and 9.1% are white. Two decades ago, nearly 30% of the student body was Black.

Louis Freedberg contributed to this story.

Copyright © 2024 Bay City News, Inc. All rights reserved. Republication, rebroadcast or redistribution without the express written consent of Bay City News, Inc. is prohibited. Bay City News is a 24/7 news service covering the greater Bay Area.