Candidates gathered at the Hollister City Council chambers on Thursday, Oct. 13 for the second “Use Your Voice” public forum, hosted by BenitoLink and the San Benito County Farm Bureau. The candidates answered a three questions each from moderators. The questions were solicited from the public through BenitoLink and were tailored to the offices for which the candidates were running.
The candidates for educational boards included: Vying for two seats on the San Benito High School Board of Trustees were candidates Jennifer Coile, John Corrigan, Mary Encinias, Frank Muro, Patty Nehme and incumbent Ray Rodriguez. Candidate Ellen Miller was not present; and Hollister School District board candidates for two available seats were Mike Baldwin — the appointed incumbent — Robert Bernosky, and incumbent Elizabeth Martinez. Also in attendance were San Benito High School Superintendent John Perales, who addressed questions about the Measure U high school bond measure and Superintendent Lisa Andrew, speaking on behalf of Measure V, which seeks money for elementary school uses.
San Benito High School Board of Trustees
The candidates were first asked why they were running and what they saw as their role on the board.
Nehme, who teaches at Spring Grove School, said she is running for the school board because she has been involved with SBHS for the past eight to 10 years and has had family attend the school. As for her role on the board, she said she would be “a new voice for the teachers and for the students.”
Rodriguez, who is the current board president, said he originally started at the high school as a parent and found that student and parent rights were lacking and became a advocate for them. He added that since joining the board, the expulsion rates are down and more students are going to college — therefore he would like to continue.
Coile, who pointed out that she has been the most consistent attendee at board meetings among the non-incumbent candidates, said there are three reasons she is running for the board: “teachers, students and staff.” She said one of her main themes is expanding options for students. She added that her role on the board “would be one of the three votes needed to vote for anything smart or stop anything stupid.”
Muro, a retired SBHS teacher, said he is running because he has a passion for educational excellence and he feels as though the educational opportunities for everybody are not there. He cited that compared to the state, SBHS is still average or below average in English and math. “Those two programs must be attended and that will be my mission,” he said.
Corrigan said he was running because “the board needs some fresh thinking and it needs some thinking that has not been constrained by a lifetime of education.” He said his view on the school is student centric. He said SBHS is one of the largest employers in San Benito County, adding, “just to talk about the education side of it, I think is a little bit short-sighted.”
Encinias, a retired SBHS and former board member, said she was running because she posses the skills such as the ability to drive results based on problem solving and strategic actions and, more importantly, following through on said actions.
Next, the candidates were asked their thoughts on vocational training programs for students who are not on a college track.
Rodriguez said the CTE building being built through the Measure G funds from the bond approved by voters in 2014 shows how much the community values vocational training programs.
“Our community values that our kids, if they’re not going to college, they need to leave school with the greatest opportunity to establish a career after school,” Rodriguez said. “That’s our mission statement: to provide the students the broadest set of opportunities upon graduation, whether or not it’s to go to college.”
Muro said, “We are talking about a group of people who are not going to go into the college, but these folks must know how to express themselves and how to do their math.”
Corrigan said one of the ways to utilize the CTE building is to build partnerships with businesses so students can learn the skills that are needed by the local economy. He suggested that the school partner with the trade unions so students can leave with the skills that could benefit them.
Encinias said she believes in the vocational program, citing her own experience as a home economics teacher.
Coile, whose husband teaches art at SBHS, said she also believes in the vocational program. She added that the school should play a role in adding internships, citing that Alvarez High School students are required to have an internship their junior year as part of the school’s agriculture program.
Nehme said, “vocational students that are going to be going into a vocation, that is completely fine and acceptable … nothing wrong with vocation. We are educating our children now so that they can take their speaking, their writing, their reading, they are now going to use that in the field that they excel in.”
Lastly, the candidates were asked about their position on the possibility of building of a second high school due to the resurgence of growth in San Benito County.
Muro said that while he believes there needs to be a second high school, he raised the question, “Where is the money going to come from?”
“It seems to me that at the present time … it’s not the best time to invest $200 million with interest,” he said.
Coile said there needed to be more student capacity due to the new housing developments. She said a decision was made at a school board meeting, on a 3-2 vote, to keep investing in the current high school. She wanted to have the district consider the Leatherback site in central Hollister to build an academy and partner with “the county, who wants to build a new library; a partnership with the Y(MCA), who wants to build a pool; an art space; a partnership with Gav(ilan College), who still needs to build down here.”
“Can we afford to build a new high school?,” she continued. “Not right now, but we are going to need something.”
Encinias said, “I believe we should first take care of our high school. Make it a genuine quality school and keep it up before you make another one.”
She added that by building a brand new high school, students are not going to want to go the old one and that would create a division in the community. She said she believes that one day, another school may be built, but “we shouldn’t have it until we make this one a quality school.”
Corrigan said, “Do we need a second high school? Yeah, probably we do. Can we afford one? No, we can’t afford to build one. He seconded Encinias’ statement about students not wanting to go to the older school if there were two, adding, “you’re going to create incredible inequity in our community.”
Nehme agreed with Encinias and Corrigan’s statements, adding, “if I was at a school where they were going to get state-of-the-art, I’m going to want to teach over there. How do you pick those teachers, out of the amazing teachers that are here? Lottery? That’s not fair.”
Rodriguez said that, fiscally, it would make sense to continue to build on the high school’s current site, but “if we’re going to go philosophically … I think a second high school is better for kids.”
“We had this conversation when (Marguerite) Maze (School) was built. How are we going to have two junior highs? And I think competition breeds success,” he said.
Watch the SBHS candidates at the forum below:
Hollister School District Board of Trustees
The candidates were asked what they thought the most important part of elementary education is and how they can impact that.
Martinez said elementary education is the foundation of how students in the community learn. “They [teachers] are the once making the biggest influence in our children’s life on a daily basis,” she said. “Education is the onset of what they are going to become as people. Education will play the most important part of their life and will determine their future,” she said.
Bernosky said the most important part of an elementary education is the teachers and the classroom. “I could be a school board member, you can have a principal, but it’s what’s happening in the classroom that is most important. Right along with that is we have to get the children to grade level as quickly as possible,” he said.
Baldwin said that as technology continues to progress, teachers need to be advanced enough so they can teach children the technology to go forward and added that teachers in the community were already doing that. “Our technology is going to be transferable to the high school so that anything you’ve done as a elementary school student or junior high student, you can see your progress as a high school student,” he said.
Next, the candidates were asked what steps they would recommend to improve students’ skills in reading and math so that they can be successful in a higher learning environment.
Bernosky said that while he is not an educator, he believes there needs to be an end to social promotion of failing students to the next grade, stating that “if they are not at the second grade reading level we can’t promote them up to the third grade.”
He added, “what I’m looking for is for the teachers to do assessments and then to tell the superintendent, ‘you know, this is where my classes are; this is what we have to do,’ then coming to the school board asking for those resources.”
Baldwin emphasized that assessments are an important part of putting staff in the right spot where students at the right age level will learn.
“If you have a first-grade teacher and she should be a fourth-grade teacher, we need to assess that. If you have students that are underperforming because they’re English learners or maybe because they are migrant, we need to assess these things,” he explained.
Martinez said the implementation of professional learning communities, increasing professional development days, and introducing strategic teaching models has allowed teachers to gain the skills they need to learn how to teach students with the new Common Core program. “That is a new program, a new way of teaching that teachers have to learn and so we have to give them the tools to be successful in the classroom. By being able to equip them and giving them the support to translate that into a model where they can introduce it in the classroom to do better … is really going to translate over to our students so that they become better learners,” she said.
Lastly, the candidates were asked about the waitlist at the Hollister Dual Language Academy and their thoughts on expanding the program.
Baldwin said it was something the board needed to look into, considering it has been such a huge success.
“We need to look into these successful programs, the things we’re seeing the students succeeding, the teachers thriving…We need to look into making it more than 500 students, making a whole school, it’s own campus, giving it it’s own room to grow and have it’s own heartbeat,” he said.
Bernosky said that while he believed those types of programs should be allowed to grow, there needed to be qualified teachers to teach them and that those programs should not be expanded to the point where average and below-average students get left behind. He stated that “those students are not getting the education they need.”
“If the school district can afford it and have the same level of teacher in there that gets the same results, then great, but not at the expense of the average student,” he added.
Martinez said Measure M helped to update and modernize some of the aging facilities due to the wait list.
“With the Measure M funds, we were able to expand it. Does it need to be expanded?” she asked. “Probably, but at this point we don’t have anywhere to put it so we are faced with the challenges of just doing what we can for now. We will continue what they feel is important to them and their children.”
Watch the candidates at the forum below:
Measure U
SBHS Superintendent John Perales of gave a two-minute introduction and overview of Measure U saying, there was a lack of facilities and need for funding to remedy that. He added that with Measure G, approved in 2014, the distrit board has been able to fulfill some of those needs but Measure U will take them to the next step.
“It will incorporate science classrooms, science laboratories, special education facilities and social studies classrooms,” he said.
Perales told the crowd about an incident involving a first-year teacher who fell because of the condition of the flooring in her classroom, adding “it shows you the desperate need that we have for building additional classrooms that would house and remove teachers that are teaching in classrooms that are probably 50-plus years old.”
He was then asked why the school is asking for additional funding when the voters recently approved the $42 million Measure G bond just two years ago.
Perales said while Measure G had gotten the school to a certain point, there are still a lot of needs. He gave examples such as the need for new science classrooms and the lack of facilities and equipment for special education students.
He was then asked how Measure U would help to accommodate the increase in student population based on projected growth. He said, “We are fearful that that we won’t be able to accommodate students in the coming years. As of today we are at capacity … We must address the increase in student population by adding additional classrooms with Measure U.”
Watch video of the Measure U discussion below:
Measure V
HSD Superintendent Lisa Andrew gave a brief introduction and overview of Measure V, saying the $36 million bond would help fund the construction of a 900 -lus student elementary and middle school at the new Santana Ranch housing development to keep class sizes optimal and to prevent overcrowding.
“As the community grows, so does the Hollister School District’s need for a new school to educate the students that will reside within the district,” she said. “This new school can be part of a larger community use project with the San Benito County that would include a track, a gym, and additional basketball and recreational game space.”
Andrew said she would like the money from Measure V to go toward a new school because of the growth Hollister is experiencing. She added that with the money from Measure M funds the school board was able to upgrade and modernize existing campuses.
“The passage of Measure V would give us a good balance of accommodating student growth as well as utilizing the rest of Measure M bond to do the rest of the repairs and modernization that’s already in play,” she said.
She was then asked if the school board had a “plan B” if the bond did not pass. Andrew said it would use developer fees for the construction of the new school site.
“It would go much slower,” she noted. “We wouldn’t be able to put all of the classroom space there but we still recognize the need for the growth. We still recognize we want to keep class sizes optimal and have that wonderful learning environment. So we are prepared to use the developer fees that we do have to begin construction on the new site,” she said.
Watch video of the Measure V discussion below:
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