Stockton Unified School District Board Candidates Donald Donaire and Kennetha Stevens spoke with The Record on October 27 to discuss leadership and solutions in a school district in need.
Donaire, 29, is running to fill an Area 5 seat vacated by trustee María Mendes. Donaire is co-director of Empowering Marginalized Asian Communities. She is also an after-school program coordinator and a non-profit youth development leader.
“We want to make sure there’s a clear line of communication between the community and the school district,” Donaire said. “The only way to see Stockton win is to put more care and resources and policies into helping these students succeed. Invest in young people and the city will have her You’ll get 10x your money back.”
Stevens has been named SUSD Parent Volunteer of the Year three times and is competing to represent Area 7. She appeared on the forum with her team of Student Campaign workers.
“I came into this business as a mother who wanted to make sure every Stockton home’s student of color had an education. I think policy and advocacy go hand in hand — I think “I’ve been involved in all aspects,” Stevens said. “Stockton Unified needs new leadership.
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None of the opponents of Donaire and Stevens, including Area 7 incumbent Zachary Averer, who was nominated in a 5-to-1 board vote shortly after Candelaria Vargas resigned in July 2021, will participate in the debate at The Record. did not show up. .
“He dropped the ball for our family. I think a lot of times in conversations with district employees, they tell me they’ve never met him,” Stephens said. “You have to understand the policy and you have to make sure you understand the board agenda before approving it…I have never seen that kind of involvement from him at any level.”
Both Stevens and Donaire have been struggling with financial accountability in school districts plagued by financial mismanagement and dysfunction, as demonstrated by two San Joaquin County grand jury reports in just over a year. fulfilling its promises.
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“We have leaders lining our pockets … I think we are getting exactly what the Board is giving to our students and giving back to our communities,” Stevens said. “We’re dysfunctional. It’s chaos, honestly. It’s chaos for the students who go to school every day. They’re not benefiting from the money that’s been put out.”
“I think it’s horrible. It brings a lot of embarrassment to the district,” Donaire said. The millions of dollars in (Federal COVID Relief) dollars were supposed to help (students) catch up … these We really hope to be able to implement many of the recommendations of the Grand Jury Report.”
Donaire says it takes community engagement to stop the superintendent’s revolving door at SUSD.
“Ensuring that these town halls and meetings take place during non-regular business hours…Language translation for Spanish speakers – having both face-to-face and Zoom is really accessible. “We need to make it easier for people to attend town hall meetings.”
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Stevens hopes headhunters will start looking for data-driven leaders, both internally and externally, to take on the mantle of oversight.
“I think they have to be people who can go out into the community and build relationships with all of our families…someone who can focus on the student and really see the data and move it forward. “I think parents need their own meeting to discuss what they believe makes them effective superintendents.”
Stevens, who served on Stockton Police Department’s Community Advisory Board during Chief Eric Jones’ tenure, said transparency opens the door to building relationships. You slapped our family in the face by not giving them a chance to see what was happening on the level.”
“[City Hall]is part of my platform for moving forward. I want to give parents, students and staff a say in how they move around the district. “We need people. One person can’t do all the work. I want to help us lift our jobs and lift our families out of poverty.” We believe you need to make sure you have a partner at the table who can help you.
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Both candidates are re-
Donaire, who has the support of the California Teachers Association and the California School Employees Association, believes that policies have long been implemented that do not respect SUSD’s families as valuable voices.
“I think this is kind of the boiling point where students, families and community members are saying, ‘Hey, you haven’t heard from us in a really long time.’ We are in this mess because we are in a place that has ignored the voice of the public for so long,” Donaire said. I want to be there and take responsibility for the problems they bring.”
Record reporter Ben Irwin covers Stockton and the San Joaquin County government. You can contact him at firstname.lastname@example.org or on his Twitter @B1rwin. Support his news locally and subscribe to The Stockton Record at https://www.recordnet.com/subscribenow.