With four names on the ballot for a pair of Scotts Valley Unified School District board seats up for grabs—and with another candidate having been appointed earlier this month—Scotts Valley residents are getting a massive say on the future direction of their local school system.
And as the Nov. 8 decision day approaches, trustee hopefuls are attempting to paint a picture for locals of why they should be selected to help chart that course.
Lucia Rocha-Nestler
“I believe that all children must have access to a great education,” said Rocha-Nestler, a 42-year-old literacy consultant. “As a parent, and teacher, I believe that I bring a different, and experienced perspective to the work that is being done every day in classrooms to make sure kids have access to success.”
If elected, she says she’d focus on attracting and keeping teachers.
“We have to do better for our teachers and make sure that we can retain them,” she said. “We aren’t always making teachers a priority. I also would like to ensure better district transparency. Many community members feel distrust with the district and the board in particular. We need to make sure that the board members are accessible and willing to listen to the community members.”
Historically, SVUSD hasn’t hit the mark when it comes to making sure its schools are safe for all of its learners, according to Rocha-Nestler.
“I want to make that a priority,” she said. “I want to make sure that all children have an equitable access to the best education.”
Rocha-Nestler says her experience implementing literacy programs, training teachers and leading study labs has prepared her for the trustee gig.
“As a staff developer, in addition to working with individual schools, I also supported district-wide initiatives,” she said. “Several of the schools I support have experienced significant gains in reading achievement.”
Rocha-Nestler had applied for the vacant seat when Trustee Sue Rains stepped down (Rains had previously resigned as board president on Aug. 16; Michael Schulman was voted in as the new president in August, with Jane McElrone voted vice president).
Rocha-Nestler was beaten for the trusteeship by Mitali Weiglein, who grew up in India and has a first-grader at Brook Knoll Elementary. Weiglein was appointed on Oct. 5 at a special meeting.
Voters have until Nov. 4 to protest the appointment and request a special election, otherwise the seat will be up for election in 2024, Santa Cruz Local reported.
Patricia Adams
Adams, a Brook Knoll-area grandmother who’s lived in Scotts Valley for three decades, says she’s spent the last 22 of those years working to better students’ mental and physical health—by facilitating healthy food options in schools.
The certified holistic nutritionist says a good diet can also boost kids’ emotional well-being.
“I am uniquely qualified to improve the lives of our students as the schools now provide lunch, or breakfast and lunch,” she said, adding she believes nutrition is more important now than ever. “Coming out of the pandemic, children need social interaction, adults they can trust and good nutrition. Those developing brains need nutrient-dense food programs.”
Adams says she’s not “beholden” to the status-quo.
“We need a change locally, and I am the only candidate who represents change,” she said. “A fresh voice from the private sector is going to help more than ‘politics as usual.’ As a businesswoman, I can readily evaluate what is working and what is not.”
Adams has selected the pithy-yet-unique tagline of “Let’s keep Scotts Valley profound!” for her candidacy.
What that would mean, in practice, she says, is pushing for better teacher pay and housing benefits, a safe learning environment, financial transparency and about the curriculum (“to increase trust between the community and the schools”), and—surprise, surprise—“nutritional programs that work.”
Roger Snyder
Snyder, an incumbent and the a vice president of Silicon Valley consulting and training company 280 Group, says a trustee’s job is to represent the community on the board, guide the superintendent and advocate for the district with outside organizations and officials.
“My four daughters all benefited from our Scotts Valley schools, so I joined the school board in 2016 to help preserve and enhance the excellent education our schools provide,” he said. “I focused my efforts to help understand and address school funding issues, improve community engagement and communications, and provide prudent financial oversight.”
Snyder promises if voters renew his contract he’ll focus on targeting learning-loss problems and address the academic and social needs of all students.
“I will continue my work within the California School Board Association … to fight for school finance reform to fix the state funding rules that shortchange Scotts Valley schools,” he said. “I will continue to encourage our diversity, equity, inclusion and delonging work that is essential to support the needs of every student in our schools.”
He points to his advocacy with Save our Schools Scotts Valley to pass parcel taxes in 2009 and 2018 to give teachers a raise, and efforts to secure debt to rebuild the middle school in 2014, as evidence he can get things done.
The way Snyder sees it, rebounding from the coronavirus era will take time.
“The learning loss challenge is a multi-year problem,” he said, giving SVUSD props for taking a multi-pronged approach to solving it. “The team implemented new assessments to measure academic progress and built interventions to address these needs. We added supports for students with more counseling, student groups, campus supervisors and a progressive discipline policy.”
Snyder says, now that we’re emerging from the pandemic, he’s been enjoying Back-to-School nights and Food Truck Fridays and is looking forward to seeing the theater program blossom.
“We’re able to rebuild our sense of community after two very hard years,” he said, adding diversity, equity and inclusion changes have started to bear fruit. “I’m looking forward to seeing all of our students continue to flourish.”
Corey Warner
Incumbent Warner did not reply to a request for comment. But according to draft board minutes from the Sept. 27 board meeting, he’s recently had a hand in trying to keep SVUSD on a financial even keel—seconding a funding motion from Roger Snyder and reporting on the Scotts Valley Education Foundation’s need for social media and events coordinators.
Warner was voted board clerk on Aug. 30.
