October 22, 2004

Mount Pleasant Elementary School District

10 candidates compete for three board positions

By Bea Baechle
Editor

Ten candidates are vying for a spot on the board of trustees for the Mount Pleasant Elementary School District. Seven of the candidates hope to win one of the two four-year terms available: Alex Ayala, Nancy Hopkins, Galvin Jackson, Rolando Loera, Martin Monica, Andres Quintero and Ike White.

Three of the candidates are running for one available two-year term: Richard Carr, Norman Marlatt and Betty Martinez.
Situated in north Evergreen, the tiny district includes three elementary schools with grades kindergarten to third (Mt. Pleasant Elementary School, Robert Sanders Elementary and Valle Vista Magnet School), one intermediate school for fourth, fifth and sixth grade (Ida Jew Intermediate School) and one middle school for all seventh and eighth grade children in the district (August Boeger Junior High School).

The candidates were recently given the opportunity to introduce themselves and answer questions from parents at a brief forum held at Ida Jew Intermediate School.

Nancy F. Hopkins
Hopkins is the only incumbent school board member running for a seat. She has served on the Mount Pleasant Elementary District school board for eight years and was an employee of the District for 15 years as a music teacher.

She has lived in the Mt. Pleasant School District for over 30 years, and completed her masters in Governance Training in 2003.

Her top priorities are to ensure that all of the schools in the district perform to high academic standards and that they provide a safe environment for all students and employees. She is also focused on keeping the budget balanced so the state of California will not take over the administration of the school district.

She is endorsed by Ida Jew, a former Mt. Pleasant School District superintendent, and current board members Virginia Baker and Manuel Martinez.

Rolando Loera
Rolando Loera, a father of five children, is a parent in the district with a first-grader at Robert Sanders Elementary. He served as a chief financial officer for Touche Manufacturing for six years, and when Touche’s parent company went through bankruptcy proceedings, he completed a leveraged buyout of the business assets and returned the company to profitability as a president and CEO for seven years. He is now dabbling in real estate development.

“One of the reasons I decided to run for the board is because I’m concerned,” said Loera. “Mount Pleasant School District has had a great education [history], and I’m seeing that deteriorate. How do we maintain our academic excellence when over the last two years, we’ve been balancing the budget on reserves? We need to make some positive changes.”

Loera received an A+ endorsement from the NAACP.

Ike White
Ike White is a retired U.S. Air Force missile maintenance superintendent and a retired technical writer and programs analyst for Lockheed Martin. His active community involvement includes organizing and heading the Pleasant Hills Neighborhood Association, serving as a panel member on the city of San Jose Diversity Screening Committee and serving as a member of the School Site Council at the elementary, intermediate and junior High level.

He is also the vice president of the East Hills Youth Football Program, represents the Mount Pleasant Community on the City Council District 8 Roundtable and is a member of the Evergreen Visioning Project task force. In 2004, he was the recipient of the city of San Jose 2004 Good Neighbor Award.

White’s top priorities are to foster positive communication pathways between the schools, parents and the community; focus socially, emotionally and academically on the well being of the whole student; and ensure that the district’s schools, facilities and students are safe at all times.

Key endorsements include District 8 City Councilmember Dave Cortese, ESUHSD governing board member Craig Mann and Anthony Muñoz, trustee, Area 6 Santa Clara County Board of Education.

Betty Martinez
Betty Martinez is an experienced educator and community advocate who has worked at many levels of education for more than 20 years, including work on school reform initiatives.

“In this current budgetary environment, the value that I bring is my familiarity with fundraising and my extensive network of resources,” writes Martinez on her Web site. “As we face even deeper budget cuts next year, we must seek alternative ways in which to preserve all of our school programs and even be bold enough to think about expanding them.”

Martinez, who has lived in the district for more than 20 years, has served as a preschool teacher, a community liaison and first grade teacher in the Alum Rock Union Elementary School District and as director of the Upward Bound Program at San Jose State University.

She was also the director of the EOP&S Program at West Valley College and served as an instructor and counselor at Ohlone, De Anza and West Valley Colleges. Martinez is currently a pre-kindergarten through twelfth grade environmental educator for the Santa Clara Valley Water District where she conducts teacher training on water science education.

Her focus as a board member, if elected, will be to ensure that schools and facilities are safe, inclusive and accessible by visiting all school sites and by attending district meetings. She also would provide support for all staff through ensuring staff development and other training opportunities,and work with the city, county and state governments to secure funding to make sure that instructional goals provide all students with a well-rounded education.

For a full list of approximately 40 endorsements, go to Martinez’s Web site: http://www.vote4betty.com, and click the endorsement button.

Richard Carr
Richard Carr has lived in the district since 1960 and raised six children who all attended schools in the district. He served on the Mount Pleasant Elementary school board for 21 years, from 1975 to 1998, with a two-year break in between.

Carr is a graduate of San Jose State University who worked at Agnews Hospital for 16 years as a psychiatric technician and as a vocational counselor.

“I don’t have any pet projects,” said Carr. “My goal is to educate the kids the best as we can with the money we have available.”

Norman Marlatt
Having lived in the Mount Pleasant Elementary School District for 50 years, Norman Marlatt saw the first school built in the district and saw the first superintendent appointed. “I’ve worked with all the superintendents since then,” said Marlatt.

He feels that all of his three children received a good quality education in the district, and went on to very successful careers—an opportunity he would like to see for the current students. He noted that he and his wife are typically among the only people attending the school board meetings, and he’d like to see more people get involved on a regular basis.

Other candidates
Four of the candidates running for the four-year term—Ayala, Jackson, Monica and Quintero—did not attend the forum. Three of these candidates did not submit information to www.smartvoter.com, and one of the candidates is not even listed on the ballot.

Andres Quintero
Although Quintero could not make the forum, he wrote on smartvoter.com:

“My desire to serve our community on the Mount Pleasant School District Governing Board has spawned out of a need to see that our schools aim to be the best. As a graduate of Mount Pleasant High School, I am a product of the Mount Pleasant community. That is what motivates me to help our community strive for excellence. The potential of our students has been neglected, as revealed by the dismal [Academic Performance Index] API school scores. I, therefore, am compelled to help create a positive change.”

Quintero currently works for the San Jose/Evergreen Community College District, where he is an analyst in the development of the California Community College Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) Plan.

“My advocacy for higher education in Sacramento for several years demonstrates my commitment to education,” writes Quintero. “In addition, I lived and worked in Washington D.C. as an intern for our Congresswoman [Zoe Lofgren], and I have completed the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Summer Institute. This experience afforded me the opportunity to receive invaluable leadership training, which I plan to apply to my efforts in our district.”

His top priorities are to raise API scores throughout the district, increase public participation in the decision making of the district and seek alternative solutions to address the district’s current financial issues.

Quintero is endorsed by San Jose City Councilmember Nora Campos, Joe Coto, candidate for the 23rd Assembly District and Victor Garza, La Raza Roundtable Chair.