What are Sacramento school board candidates’ campaign priorities? Here are the top three
In the years since the dawn of COVID-19, school board elections have been called the “new battleground of American politics,” with many candidates in the 2020 and 2022 elections being mobilized by issues related to the pandemic.
The dust from the height of the pandemic has settled, but the issues either directly related to the shutdowns or that were deprioritized during the emergency state have captured national attention. Remote school-related learning loss, poor special education programming, teacher retention and student behavior continually make headlines. Conversations surrounding social issues have continued since the racial reckoning inspired by the 2020 George Floyd protests, and school campuses have proved to be prominent combat zones in the culture war dividing Americans.
All of these issues have manifested in local schools. Test scores in districts across Sacramento have remained stagnant for nearly a decade, and many of them remain below state averages. Six local school districts are seeking to pass bond measures to fund needed repairs and modernizations for schools with crumbling infrastructure. Elk Grove Unified School District recently altered its club participation policy in response to pushback it received for an elementary school LBGTQ club.
Given all the information and emotions circling public education, what issues are Sacramento County school board candidates campaigning on?
Key campaign priorities of Sacramento school board candidates
The Sacramento Bee analyzed Voter Guide answers and the campaign websites of the school board candidates running in Elk Grove Unified, Sacramento City Unified, San Juan Unified, Folsom Cordova Unified, Natomas Unified, Galt Joint Union High and Center Joint Unified school districts for the most common priorities listed. Of the 33 candidates researched, six did not respond to the Bee’s Voter Guide request and did not have a website including their key campaign priorities.
Improving educational outcomes
Predictably, the most shared priority was to improve educational outcomes, with 18 candidates explicitly mentioning it in their materials. Candidates expressed this by writing that they wanted to boost test scores to meet or exceed California standards, improve basic skills like math and reading and develop better curricula to help meet those standards.
Recent standardized test scores released by the state show little improvement, if any, in each of the six districts since 2015. Only Folsom Cordova Unified and Elk Grove Unified exceed the state averages for performance in English language arts and mathematics.
Candidates varied in how they planned to improve these outcomes. Many candidates mentioned ambitions of fostering more robust tutoring and after school programs. Micah Grant, a Natomas Unified trustee running for reelection in Area 3, boasts $20 million of investment on intervention and other supplementary programs to help improve learning.
Others, like Jay Martinez, running for Sacramento City Unified in Area 4, floated increasing the number of after school sport options to improve student performance in addition to increasing tutoring options.
Eight candidates specifically mentioned issues of equity, including the effort to close the opportunity/achievement gap along racial and socioeconomic lines. This is a key priority of Sacramento City Unified Area 3 candidate Rolanda Wilkins, who has promised to address disparities in resources, opportunities and support service for children of all backgrounds.
Parent involvement
This year’s school board hopefuls are seeking to bolster parents’ roles in the school ecosystem, with 11 of them naming parent involvement as a key priority. The topic of parent involvement in school has become increasingly prevalent in schools due to the socially conservative parental rights movement which advocates against practices and curriculum materials that address race and sexuality.
Heidi Moore, running for Elk Grove Unified in trustee Area 7, was a leader of the group that organized a school walkout in protest of Pleasant Grove Elementary School’s LBGTQ club, saying at the time that the staff “betrayed the trust of parents” when they held the lunch club meeting and didn’t notify parents or require permission slips.
The backlash led to national attention from platforms like Libs of Tiktok, a conservative social media account with 3 million followers on X, formerly Twitter, and Jesse Watters’ primetime Fox News show. Religious protesters turned up in front of the school and the school personnel received threats.
Despite an outpouring of support among local community members, the Elk Grove Unified school board recently voted to institute a policy that requires parent permission to join a club.
On her website, Moore said that she will advocate for “complete transparency with parents regarding curriculum, instructional materials and policies.” She lists an endorsement by the California Parents Union, a conservative parental rights advocacy group.
Jacqueline Ortiz, running for the same district in Area 6, has previously asked the board for the removal of books containing information about non-heterosexual sex from the school library. Parental involvement is the first issue listed on her priorities page, advocating for more consideration of parent feedback in school curriculum.
Other candidates called for parent participation in their student’s education at home and on campus. Jennifer Morgan, running for a seat on the San Juan Unified board, is urging parent participation on board advisory committees and Nick Bloise, running for the same board in a different trustee area, wants to see more parent volunteers in classrooms.
Facilities
With six local school districts looking to pass bond measures, plus Proposition 2 on the ballot for all California voters, school facilities are at the top of mind for many local candidates.
In Folsom Cordova, candidates were most likely to prioritize issues other than academic performance in their messaging. All four candidates have made mention of school facilities. This is top of mind for voters in the area, given that the district is trying to pass two bond measures in Rancho Cordova to fund the repair and modernization of some of the area’s buildings that are more than 60 years old.
District officials say that the two measures will fund urgent repairs like deteriorating electrical systems, water lines and leaky roofs. The bonds would also fund the expansion of Career Technical Education pathways in fields like nursing and agriculture at the district’s high schools.
“My top priorities center on ensuring that our district provides safe, well-maintained, and functional facilities while being fiscally responsible,” Area 2 candidate Dianna Laney wrote in the Sacramento Bee Voter Guide. “I am deeply concerned about the condition of some of our schools. Many are aging and in need of major repairs, while in other areas, the district is overbuilding new schools that, although beautiful, are unnecessary and costly to maintain.”
Five candidates in other districts also mentioned school facilities in their campaign priorities.
Other issues
Advocacy for school staff and support for additional extracurricular activities tied with school facilities with nine mentions each. Developing new career technical education programs to prepare students for the workforce beyond high school was particularly popular, as well as support for after school and childcare programs.
Fiscal responsibility and equity were the next most discussed, followed by school safety and support for school resource officers. Special education, despite being a hot issue in the region, received just five mentions.
This story was originally published October 22, 2024 at 5:00 AM.
