Editorial: Three strong candidates for Contra Costa education board

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Most people in Contra Costa are familiar with their local school boards, which oversee the K-12 education in their communities.

Less visible is the county Board of Education, an elected body of five people with key responsibilities. Its members adopt the courses of study for county-run schools for incarcerated juveniles. They approve the budget of the county Office of Education, which is otherwise run independently by the separately elected county superintendent of schools.

And the board hears appeals of student expulsions, inter-district transfers and charter school applications. It’s that last role that drives the politics of campaigns for the board because labor unions often target charter schools and look for ways to block their approvals.

Right now, the Contra Costa Board of Education is controlled by a narrow majority of union-backed trustees. The issue for voters in the Nov. 8 election is whether they want board members who will work well with others and give charter schools an even-handed review.

If they do, they should elect Rupy Krishnan in Area 2, Mike Maxwell in Area 4, and Annette Lewis in Area 5.

Area 2 – Rupy Krishnan

Krishnan, a parent of three, is the founder and former chairwoman of the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Committee at Acalanes High School in Lafayette, a member of the Lafayette library foundation board and a former financial analyst.

She supports charter schools as an educational option to underperforming traditional public schools and for providing specialized education to students with focused passions. And she wants to give a voice to students who have been marginalized.

The incumbent is Sarah Butler, a former Orinda school board trustee. When we backed her four years ago for the county board, she was the better of two bad candidates. During Butler’s four years on the Orinda board, she so irritated her colleagues that even her allies backed her opponents when she ran, unsuccessfully, for reelection in 2016.

Sadly, her performance on the Contra Costa board has not been much better. Most recently, there was her failed attempt last month to create a school safety committee without first talking with the superintendent, who runs the schools that any new policies would affect. And we remain amazed by her cringingly embarrassing repeated butchering of the Pledge of Allegiance when she leads the board meetings.

The other candidate in the race is Lisa Disbrow, a retired kindergarten teacher who has adopted conservative talking points about critical race theory and objects to schools that have signs saying their campuses are “no place for hate.” That, Disbrow says, places teachers in the position of being “moral authorities.”

Area 4 – Mike Maxwell

In his eight years on the county board, Maxwell has brought a balanced approach to charter schools, recognizing the benefits and the economic challenges they present to traditional public schools. He sees himself as an advocate for teachers, students and families.

Maxwell is the former statewide director of the YMCA’s model legislature program for high school students and is currently vice president for an aging-in-place campus in Pleasant Hill, where he is leading the development of an 80-unit project for low-income elderly residents.

His opponents are Cheri Calcagno, who missed her scheduled virtual interview, and Anaite Letona, the teacher-union-backed candidate who is an elementary and middle school teacher. Letona says board members should “resist and interrupt the systemic racism” but was hard to pin down on what she saw as the problems with the incumbent or the county-run schools.

Area 5 – Annette Lewis

Lewis came to the county Board of Education four years ago with a solid education background, as a parent, a substitute teacher and longtime PTA activist who had served on the statewide board.

Since joining the board, she has provided a measured approach to charter schools and a desire to increase monitoring of their successes and failures. She also has a clear understanding of the role of county school board members and the limits to their authority.

Her opponents are Derek Carson II, who didn’t respond to multiple attempts to reach him, and Justin Brown, who manages his parents’ investments and moonlights as a television producer. Other than being a parent, Brown, who calls himself a community activist, has no education policy background.

After filing to run for the seat, he participated in a protest with teachers of the county Office of Education, who were in negotiations with the superintendent, because, he said, he wanted to get his name out there. He said he would do it again if he were elected to the board.

Lewis doesn’t consider that appropriate because “it is not the place of a county board member to be publicly challenging the superintendent,” who is responsible for negotiating with the teachers in the county-run schools. We agree.

Those who want the board to represent the community rather than just one special interest should elect Krishnan, Maxwell and Lewis.