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CONTRA COSTA COUNTY -- Incumbents captured the three open seats on the West Contra Costa School Board Tuesday. With virtually all precincts counted, Karen Leong Fenton, Glen Price and Charles Ramsey decisively led the pack of six candidates. Updated Nov. 6, 1:30 am
"I am very excited and appreciative," said Ramsey. "I am glad people heard my message -- trying to strengthen the district and fight for the children. We still have a lot of work to do."
The challengers Ray Muhammad, Susan Pricco and Tom Kamb had built their campaigns around complaints about low test scores, teacher shortages, inadequate school facilities and the current board's inability to manage the situation.
But late this evening, Price said, "It is really interesting that the race was really between the three incumbents for who is coming in one, two and three. Voters seem to want us to continue improving the schools, facilities, wages and salaries."
The incumbents felt that experience was the key to progress for the district.
Price said that the district was at a crossroads and Ramsey added it would be beneficial to the community to have people who are experienced be responsible for allocating $500 million in bond measure money and managing a $250 million budget.
"There is a lot more in it than just having a plan, being independent or a teacher," Ramsey said. "You have to try hard to have balance."
"People don't often realize how much compliance issues we have," Fenton continued. "Our biggest source of money is from the state and the federal government and it comes with requirements. We have had legal challenges, fought the state on audits. It puts a lot of pressure on us," she said. "With money comes responsibility."
After declaring bankruptcy in 1991, the West Contra Costa Unified School District has been slowly rebuilding its financial base. Test scores, however, have not been showing the same steady increase. While elementary SAT-9 scores have improved, middle and high school student scores have remained stagnant. The SAT-9 test is an annual assessment of basic skills at each grade level. The district's scores ranged from the 70th percentile in Hercules to the 30th percentile in Richmond.
No issue drew greater attention than how to increase test scores and close academic achievement disparities. Muhammad, a Richmond resident, firefighter and former teacher at Verde Elementary School, said part of the problem was an ever-changing curriculum.
"We need to choose a curriculum that we stick with," he said "Each time we change, it costs money to get new software and retrain teachers to use the new curriculum."
Muhammad also says students need a curriculum that is more culturally diverse. "They need a curriculum that…validates their community and their culture," he said.
At a series of five debates, the challengers and incumbents discussed their approaches to the issues of school safety, run-down facilities and fiscal management.
Karen Fenton said student participation in peer court systems and school board processes would spark their interest in learning, and make schools safer. "With all the talk about test scores, who we haven't really engaged is the students," she said. "We do things to them, not with them."
Kamb and Pricco said removing disruptive students from West County schools would also help. "There is a place for bad kids," said Kamb, a former police officer. "Send them to Gompers [Continuation School]."
Ramsey, an attorney in Oakland disagreed. He said conflict mediation would be a better tool to use with students. "We need to find out what their stresses and challenges are instead of kicking people out," he said.
The district also suffers from a teacher shortage. At Kennedy, an academically struggling high school in Richmond, teachers turn over about every one to three years.
United Teachers of Richmond President Terri Jackson said that teachers in the district need more resources and better salaries. "It hurts our retirement packages when we are not paid competitively. It also harms retention," she said.
Pricco said that the administration must give its teachers more authority and respect. "The school district must listen to teachers, what they need and want and then respond."
All candidates are hopeful that the $450 million dollars raised by two bond measures that voters have approved in recent years will revitalize the district's constituents as well as the district's crumbling school facilities.
"When kids see the community making a real investment in the schools, it will have an impact on how they value education," said Price. "When they go to school in environments that are degraded, it has a subconscious effect on their achievement."
Muhammad said that better facilities would also help motivate teachers. "Teachers don't want to work where the school is an eyesore," he said. "You show them how important they are by the kind of facilities you put them in."
The ultimate question was how to get parents to the polls.
Muhammad said many people have been disappointed by the board in the past and are turned off from voting. Fenton, who said that the statewide elections have discouraged voters, geared her campaign toward the district's 11,000 permanent absentee voters.
West Contra Costa County Clerk-Recorder Stephen Weir predicted that a little over half the district would turnout on Tuesday.
But despite the predicted low turnout, Price said there were advantages in this election. "This is the first time we are doing our [school board] elections in a general election cycle. Overall, the excitement is low, but we will have a lot more voters no matter what."
The incumbents will be sworn in December 4.