Students and families flex their power at the first 5C candidate forum

Esteban and Mia are in their senior year of high school at Summit K2. It’s a busy time, with college applications needing to be written. Still, they said it was important to spend their time on a Thursday evening helping to lead the first-ever Contra Costa County Charter Coalition (5C) school board candidate forum.

Esteban and Mia said protecting school choice, and access to schools like Summit, is very important to them. Especially since they each have younger siblings at charter schools.

“I want her to have the same experience that I got,” Esteban said. “I hope the candidates tonight are the right people who will keep our schools open.”

The forum featured candidates for the West Contra Costa County Board of Education and the Contra Costa County Board of Education. About 350 students, educators, family and members attended the forum.

Candidates Guadalupe Enllana (WCCUSD Area 2); Anthony Caro (CCC BOE Area 1); and Daniel Nathan-Heiss (CCC BOE Area 1). Candidates Jamila Smith Folds (WCCUSD Area 1) and Otheree Christian (WCCUSD Area 2) did not show up to the forum because of other engagements. Candidate Cinthia Hernandez (WCCUSD Area 3), who excused herself from the event because she recently gave birth, made time to meet with a group of 5C parent leaders before she went on maternity leave.

Mia and Esteban are part of a group of nearly 100 5C parent and student leaders who organized the forum and came up with questions to ask the candidates around school safety, the budget, literacy, college readiness and series of yes/no lightning round questions.

“It was really cool to work with parents and see how passionate they are about their child’s education,” Mia said. “They have more experience that we could learn from.”

Gondica Ngyuen has been a 5C parent leader since soon after its founding. Gondica shared her testimony during the forum, remembering when the school district went bankrupt in 1991 and the negative impact it had on her sister, who was a student at the time.
‍

Now, with two of her kids at Caliber Beta Academy and the eldest at a district high school, she shared that she is “seeing the writing on the walls.”

She asked the candidates how they propose the district gain financial stability. “I do not want history to repeat itself where my family finds itself in a bankrupt district,” she said.

Gondica attended the forum with her three children. Her eldest son, Morgan, participated in organizing the forum and helped pass out t-shirts Thursday evening before it began. “It was fun seeing people I know,” he said.    

Gondica said she was proud of the work the 5C parent and student leaders put into organizing the forum, and how they pulled off organizing the largest education candidate forum in the county.

Since she began with 5C, she’s seen more parents and schools join the coalition. As more parents are informing one another about 5C, momentum is building.

“In the beginning, when I first joined, we would have never been able to pull this off, but look at us now,” she said. “Multiple schools, hundreds of people. It feels good. And we all have a common goal, to keep our schools open.”

                                                                            Click here to view the entire album for the Candidate Forum!