In a relatively low-energy forum on Oct. 26, Santa Maria-Bonita School District board of education candidates debated, and mostly agreed on, a variety of fiscal and educational topics.
While the four candidates each had somewhat unique ideas on ways to improve the school district, they all shared similar goals for the district’s handling of Santa Maria’s children. The candidates, each with starkly contrasting backgrounds and qualifications, seemed to agree on most topics that came up, including improving in-school mental health care, continuing professional development trainings for teachers, and increasing parent involvement.
Vedamarie Alvarez-Flores, a native Santa Marian, former teacher of 39 years, adjunct at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, and incumbent board member, said at the event that she hopes to promote equitable access to education for all Santa Maria-Bonita students.
As one of the district’s first-ever credentialed bilingual teachers, Alvarez-Flores said she hopes to enhance the district’s recent efforts to capitalize on its large population of native Spanish-speaking students and promote dual language skills. With that, Alvarez-Flores said she hopes to support diversity among the district’s students and staff through ongoing district cultural competency trainings, increased parent involvement, and well-rounded curriculum.
“We need multilingual and multicultural classes,” Alvarez-Flores said at the event, “not just bilingual.”
In her past two years on the board, Alvarez-Flores said she learned a lot about the district’s funding formula and how to inspire teachers and students to meet high expectations. Still, she said there’s always more to learn, and she hopes to continue growing with another term.
Ricky Lara, a lifelong Santa Maria resident, farmer who oversees 4,500 acres and several employees, and another incumbent board member, said at the event that he hopes to help students become successful in whatever academic avenues they choose. Lara, who said hard work, compassion, and community input have been the keys to his success as both a farmer and board member, said he wants to work with parents, teachers, and staff to use their tax dollars in the most efficient ways possible within the district.
As a father of two children who have gone through Santa Maria-Bonita and down two very different career paths, Lara said he’d continue his support for all school subjects, from career tech and math pathways to the arts and literature.
Lara, who is backed by the California School Employees Association, said he’s “all about equality,” but struggled to lay out any specific ideas as to how he planned to enhance student success, opportunity, and fiscal responsibility within the district.
Lara typically kept his answers brief and often repeated or seconded what other candidates had already said.
Gary Michaels is a Chicago-born, former telecommunications marketer who came to Santa Maria in 2005 for a job with Comcast, where he helped install high speed internet at many of Santa Maria’s school districts. He now works as a consultant for E-Rate, a program that provides major discounts to schools and libraries that need help obtaining affordable telecommunications and internet access
Michaels said he wants to serve on the board because he believes in public education.
As a child from a lower middle class, Polish family, who moved on to graduate from several colleges, including the University of Sussex in London, Michaels said he’s a product of the public school system at its best. Like many kids in Santa Maria, Michaels said he spoke different languages at home and in school, was bullied, and overcame adversities.
He said at the event that he hopes to support Superintendent Luke Ontiveros in his mission of improving test scores and closing achievement gaps. He’d like to promote student and parent literacy, create a carpooling program to help get kids to school, improve fiscal responsibility, and reduce class sizes.
“I want to make sure that money is not thrown at these kids,” Michaels said, “but it’s attached to them like their school backpacks.”
Abraham Melendrez shared many of the other candidates’ goals but had the most specific plans for ways to get there.
Melendrez, a Santa Maria native and nonprofit community organizer for Central Coast Alliance United for a Sustainable Economy (CAUSE), said that as a former student of the district, he hopes to give kids like himself a positive experience in the education system.
If elected, Melendrez said he would work to decrease class sizes and increase resources for students struggling with mental health issues. As a former English learner, survivor of abuse, and first-generation college graduate, Melendrez said he’d like to improve the district’s services for English learners, advocate for more state funding, and create better education pathways for district staffers wanting to become teachers.
Melendrez struggled in school, he said, and didn’t graduate high school until he was 21 years old. Now he’s an alum of Allan Hancock College and UC Berkeley, and said he recently moved back to Santa Maria to help local high school and college students develop civic engagement, community service, policy research, and leadership skills. He’s worked with multiple nonprofit, faith, and labor organizations.
He also hopes to enhance the district’s arts and music education and increase participation in extracurricular activities, without which he said he may never have graduated. Mostly, he said he just wants to bring the humanity back into education
“We have to understand that kids are humans first and foremost,” he said “They’re not clients, not products, they’re humans.”
This article appears in Nov 1-7, 2018.
