Should Lucia Mar voters ‘rebuild’ the school board, or reelect incumbents? | Opinion
If you drive around South County, chances are you’ll spot a bright, green-and-white sign that urges voters to “Rebuild the Board” — or a bright pink one that counters with “Stop the School Board TAKEOVER!”
The signs sum up the deep political divide in the Lucia Mar Unified School District. In an effort to move the board in a more conservative direction, three far-right candidates hope to defeat longtime incumbents Vicki Meagher, Dee Santos and Don Stewart.
The challengers — Paul Bischoff, Mike Fuller and Paul Hively — have platforms identical to one another: Improve academic performance, protect parental rights and be financially accountable to voters.
Nothing too out-of-the-ordinary there. But it’s their take on “culture war” issues — including some that are totally outside the purview of the board — that’s drawing attention.
According to responses to a survey distributed by Equippers Church Central Coast, all three support purging school libraries of books that “contain pervasive vulgarity or explicit sexual content.” (When a radio host asked them for an example of such a book, they could name only one: “All Boys Aren’t Blue.”)
They are in favor of notifying parents “if their child identifies with a gender different from their biological sex” and they oppose allowing “biological boys” to play on girls’ teams.
They’re against “policies on diversity, equity and inclusion for K-12 students,” and they want parents to be notified when their children use school-based healthcare facilities.
They are anti-abortion, though Fuller might consider one exception:
“Against 99.9% of (abortions) with a ‘possible’ exception (rare) that a mother with other children would be determined by doctors that she would die giving birth to another child,” he wrote on the church survey.
‘Most policy comes from the state’
What troubles us about these three candidates is not so much their resistance to what they describe as a “progressive agenda.”
It’s that they don’t seem to have a clue about how the public education system operates in California.
“What they don’t realize is that most policy comes from the state,” Lucia Mar Board President Colleen Martin said in an email. “They would be unable to undo the culture-war policies they don’t like ... unless they want to break the law.”
Nor do they have any concrete proposals for how they would improve what they obviously see as a failing school district.
Unfortunately, none of the three challengers would meet with The Tribune Editorial Board or respond to a questionnaire from The Tribune news department, so we were unable to question them directly.
They did, however, speak at length with KVEC talk radio host Dave Congalton.
Over the course of a 44-minute interview on Oct. 14, they had not a single positive thing to say about the district or the people who run it — or hardly anything else.
They accused the school board of several missteps, including the handling of the COVID pandemic and the decision to put a bond measure on the November ballot. (All three oppose Measure H.)
They pointed to low test scores and a drop in enrollment to paint a bleak picture of public education in the South County.
“I’m looking at the records from Lucia Mar,” Fuller said. “We’ve lost 1,089 students in the last 10 years.”
At the same time, he added, there has been an increase in private and charter school attendance and homeschooling — the implication being that families are abandoning Lucia Mar and the school board is to blame.
Run the district more like a Costco
Yet the drop in attendance is affecting districts throughout the state, and according to the nonpartisan, nonprofit Public Policy Institute of California, is likely to get worse, especially in coastal areas.
“The long-term trend of falling enrollment primarily reflects declining birth rates and net migration to other states,” the policy think tank says in a brief. “Birth rates have been falling for years even as greater numbers of families with school-aged children have moved to other states in recent years, exacerbating enrollment declines.”
The challengers had few ideas on how to stop the “bleeding,” as Fuller called it.
One proposed getting parents more involved, while another — we were unable to distinguish which of three — suggested running the district more like Costco.
“The employees are stoked to be there,” he said. “The customers are stoked to be there. ... They don’t sit on their laurels. They’re constantly changing products. They’re moving things around. They’re making it where the customers are happy.”
BEHIND THE STORY
MOREWhy do we endorse?
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What the incumbents bring
The challengers did raise some valid issues.
Standardized test scores are low. Parent involvement could be better. And while declining enrollment is due to several factors, the district could perhaps do more to attract new students and retain those currently enrolled.
But again, those are issues affecting many districts, especially as families adjust following the COVID shutdown.
Bringing on three new board members who appear far more interested in their personal political and religious agendas than in the everyday running of a school district would be, at best, disruptive and, at worst, disastrous.
We strongly recommend reelecting the incumbents: Meagher, Santos and Stewart.
They understand the role of the school board and the legal and budgetary limitations that face the district. They are committed to providing educational opportunities for students with a range of abilities and ambitions. They recognize and respect the need for diversity, equity and inclusion.
As for fiscal responsibility, that is exactly why the board placed a bond measure on the ballot. It will allow the district to upgrade aging buildings by removing asbestos and lead pipes; to replace portable classrooms long past their prime; and to provide up-to-date lab and career technical facilities. The board understands that the longer the work is put off, the more buildings will deteriorate and the more expensive it will be to repair or replace them later.
They deal in reality, rather than espousing a wishful-thinking agenda based on the desire to turn back the clock to a less tolerant era in education.
The Tribune Editorial Board strongly endorses Vicki Meagher, Dee Santos and Don Stewart for the Lucia Mar Unified School District Board of Trustees.