04 Apr Q&A: Jag Lathan Focuses on Literacy, Equity in Superintendent Race

Antioch school board President Jag Lathan is running to be the schools superintendent of Contra Costa County. (Courtesy of Jag Lathan)

Interview, Samantha Kennedy

Editor’s note: Jaguanana “Jag” Lathan, president of the Antioch Unified School District Board of Trustees, is running for Contra Costa County superintendent of schools in the June 2 election. She holds a doctorate in educational leadership from Mills College. Her opponent is Dana Eaton, superintendent of the Brentwood Union School District. Lathan spoke to The Pulse about her background, why she’s running and what she would do as superintendent, including how she would address equity and district finances. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Contra Costa Pulse: Why did you decide to run for superintendent, and what are your top priorities?

Jag Lathan: I am running because of my experience as a child who had a difficult time learning to read and as a teenage mother who faced real obstacles in high school. I know the power of educators who believe in you. I took those learnings with me as a special education teacher, general education teacher, gate teacher, principal, and chief of learning and accountability. The county needs a leader with a proven track record of turning around student outcomes.

My priorities … I’ll list the top three: countywide literacy. There are about 170,000 students in our public school system in Contra Costa County. About 50,000 are not yet reading on grade level.

Leading with students at the center of budgeting. Providing clear and consistent oversight to districts, monitoring their budget, and providing feedback so they’re not in a situation many are in now, where they’re struggling and needing to make cuts. The county office’s role and responsibility is to step in prior and support districts.

Lastly, prioritizing educator growth and excellence. Creating … an accredited program at the county office where people can become an educator, a school psychologist, a teacher or an administrator.

Contra Costa Pulse: How have your experiences shaped your approach to supporting students?

Jag Lathan: It’s shaped my approach tremendously in terms of not only the compassion that I have for young people, but the high expectations. I was able to be successful even though I was a teenage mom. I was pregnant with my son at 16. Because educators and my family had high expectations of me, they supported me to finish high school. But also educators having high expectations for educators — that you can and you will teach at high levels, and I’m going to support you to make sure that you get what you need so that you can be successful.

Contra Costa Pulse: What role should the county superintendent play when districts are facing financial insolvency?

Jag Lathan: Definitely providing resources. Many districts across the state are on this fiscal cliff because we no longer have the one-time COVID funding. Enrollment has declined across the county and state. The [fewer] students you have, the less money districts receive. There’s an increase in students with disabilities, … that means more funding going towards those services.

Teachers’ unions across the state are advocating for an increase in … staff pay. … Medical premiums have increased since COVID into double digits … that also contributes to this enormous bubble that we have of financial stressors.

If the county office works proactively … to show districts before you get to this cliff, here are the things that you can do, [then] you can start making incremental changes to right-size your district to match the new reality of your funding.

Contra Costa Pulse: Your platform calls for “safe and ethical AI literacy.” What does that look like in schools?

Jag Lathan: AI is constantly changing. … While there are some benefits, there are real concerns about how students may use it, how adults may use it, and the information from AI that might be harmful.

I know there have been concerns about grading and, “Are students really writing these papers or are they using artificial intelligence?” We need to not hide from those conversations, then set some boundaries, and whatever is working well using artificial intelligence, not hiding from that either.

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We need to make sure that what we are doing is ethical, then teaching students. … how to discern if this is a real image or if this is an image created by artificial intelligence. Those are conversations we need to have with young people.

Contra Costa Pulse: What distinguishes your vision from your opponent’s? What are the biggest equity challenges, and how would you address them?

Jag Lathan: Mine is more about bringing everyone together and ensuring people are moving forward in a similar manner. What also distinguishes me is my understanding of how county offices work and the innovation that can be done at a county office. My opponent has never worked at a county office of education. At San Diego County Office of [Education], I started the first equity department. I worked at the Alameda County Office of Education and created a teacher credentialing program, a teacher residency program.

I also have done a lot of turnaround work … taking things from something that isn’t working well or is very small and expanding it, and not only making it larger, scaling up, but also turning it around and making sure it’s excellent.

I’ve been in L.A. Unified. … I’m also already an elected official. I’ve been in so many different environments and working across differences in ethnicity, income, working with the LGBTQ community, different religions. I know how to bring people together, and I have not seen that from my opponent.

Contra Costa Pulse: What are the biggest equity challenges, and how would you address them?

Jag Lathan: One is improving literacy. Thousands of children leaving our schools … might be reading, but they’re not reading on grade level. That’s really important when you think about the future of our students.

Literacy is not just reading. Literacy is reading, writing and speaking across content areas. That is an equity issue because a lot of kids not reading on grade level are Black, Latino and multilingual learners who are usually Latino and Middle Eastern.

The ability for people to become educators is an equity issue. We need to increase the number of teachers of color in this county. The more that you have teachers and staff who look like the students, the more connections there are. I want to … bring in teachers and staff who come from the communities they serve.