The WCCUSD school board candidates discuss their priorities amidst a fiscal crisis…

West Contra Costa board candidates focus on finances
By Kimberly S. Wetzel

The four candidates vying for two seats on the West Contra Costa school board differ somewhat on the issues, but largely agree that they must address growing fiscal challenges for the district to stay afloat.

Antonio Medrano, current board President Karen Pfeifer, Robert Studdiford and Tony Thurmond faced off recently in a forum sponsored by the Times and others to discuss mostly financial topics, including the Measure D parcel tax, the possibility of school closures and the district’s unfunded retiree health benefit liability. The forum will air numerous times on local cable channels in the next few weeks.

All four support Measure D, a parcel tax on the November ballot that would cost taxpayers 7.2 percent per square foot of property and generate about $10 million for the district for such things as counselors and librarians. All agreed that the district should consider closing or consolidating schools to save money, and that district leaders must do something to bring down the estimated $500 million owed in retiree health benefits.

But the candidates differ on what else they hope to do.

Medrano, who lost his 2006 bid for the school board by 66 votes, said he wants to get schools seismically safe, improve teacher turnover rates, increase the number of career academies, improve communication at the school-board level, lower the dropout rate and get more students to take advanced-placement exams.

“Student achievement, by grades and everything else, has to be one of our top priorities,” Medrano said.

Pfeifer, the only incumbent in the race, said she will continue efforts to improve school safety by ensuring the School Resource Officer program stays in place. The program, implemented a few years ago, stations officers from various jurisdictions at the district’s high schools and some middle schools. “We’ve had less fights, less violence, less of all the scary things that make people feel unsafe at school,” Pfeifer said. “I think it’s because we’ve radically changed our safety program.”

Pfeifer said she’s proud of her accomplishments while serving on the board, including increasing the number of career academies and creating partnerships with major hospitals to place student health centers at Richmond, Kennedy, El Cerrito and De Anza high schools. She hopes to create similar centers at the district’s remaining schools.

Studdiford said that if elected, his emphasis would be stabilizing the district’s finances. He also hopes to improve teacher pay and continue on the path to making sure students are safe at school. Studdiford would like to see more after-school programs to help students succeed, and hopes to improve school board communications. The district needs a board “that can work together and be a true advocate for students,” Studdiford said. “The school board has been very divisive, and wasted a lot of time due to petty politics.”

Thurmond, currently a Richmond City Council member, said he would focus on reducing the dropout rate and closing the achievement gap through internship, tutoring and after-school programs. He wants to start a youth commission to advise school board members and staff. Thurmond said he would make sure all schools are seismically safe and seek partnerships with nonprofits and universities, and he thinks the district should do something to address why students leave West Contra Costa.

“We need to give parents a reason to get excited about the district,” he said. “We have to restore that confidence, and the only way to do that is to show that all students are getting a good education.”

In the recent past, the five-member school board seemingly has been split into two factions: those endorsed by the teachers union and those who receive financial backing from contractors and vendors who work on the district’s $1 billion school bond construction program. This year, Medrano and Thurmond are endorsed by the district’s teachers union, while Pfeifer and Studdiford have received financial backing from contractors and architects.

In addition to the Times, the candidates forum taped last week was sponsored by the League of Women Voters of Diablo Valley, West Contra Costa League of Women Voters, Contra Costa Council, East Bay Community Foundation, Contra Costa TV, Contra Costa County Election Department and Comcast. The Dean and Margaret Lesher Foundation of Walnut Creek also provided significant funding.