Community organizer and author Tonga Victoria, San Jose State University Professor Maria Cruz, and youth education nonprofit director Jon Bryant are competing to represent Area E on the District Board of Trustees. The seat is currently held by Shawneece Stevenson, who is not running for re-election.
Tonga Victoria
Victoria is currently CEO of Swordhouse Inc., a consulting and communications firm for nonprofits and local governments, and works as a grassroots organizer. Victoria is also endorsed by the Sequoia District Teachers Association (SDTA). “I have 10 years of community organizing experience in the feeder pipeline. That’s just a richness that I bring, if elected, to the District table, that I think has otherwise been missing at the District level,” she said.
Victoria, who grew up in East Palo Alto and Belle Haven, is a newcomer to District politics but has long been involved in the Area E community. “I don’t follow District news. However, I follow a lot of what’s happening in the community,” she said. “I bring a very deep network of local leaders, educators, parents and youth with me, alongside me, that I represent across my area.”
“I have served nearly 2,000 youth across East Palo Alto, North Fair Oaks, and Belle Haven. I have created, designed, implemented, nearly 20 programs around youth leadership, heritage preservation, leadership development, and mental wellness for our Peninsula Bay Area youth,” she added.
Her work has brought her to M-A’s feeder schools, particularly Cesar Chavez Ravenswood Middle School, and has influenced her opinions on detracking. “The conversation usually starts at the District high school level. But for me, really that conversation starts at the middle school and even primary school levels, where, if our students aren’t receiving adequate support, aren’t being encouraged to read at home, we end up in a situation where detracking happens,” she said.
“I’m not saying that Ravenswood is the problem,” she said. “I think again, this is all an opportunity to really strengthen our pipeline.”
Victoria advocates for tracking but also prefers M-A’s Multicultural Literature and Voice (MCLV) program to previous AS and regular English I classes. “I would actually advocate for an advanced standing MCLV class because I do believe that advancing the English language requires multicultural voices. I’ve seen the curriculum, and I think the curriculum is beautiful,” she said. “And I actually wonder why it’s not an advanced class. I think that we are in a position to really redefine what advanced standing looks like, given that we live in the heart of Silicon Valley, the heart of diversity.”
Though she would like more information before deciding on curriculum changes, Victoria expressed criticism of Ethnic Studies. “I got my undergraduate degree in Race and Ethnic Studies. Literally two days after graduating, I started serving my community, and I had to unlearn a lot of what I was taught as a college student,” she said. She believes there should be a curriculum review process at the District level.
“I have become very critical on not just the curriculum, but also the delivery, the messaging of Race and Ethnic Studies. I am someone who truly believes that the community are the experts when it comes to teaching local history, when it comes to teaching about relations, and so I would want to delegate or defer to the community experts who can speak to this area now.”
Victoria also emphasized the importance of school safety. “Part of the response is looking at restorative justice. Also, there are certain things that happen on campus, like bringing guns on campus, that warrant a suspension,” she said. “I would say that there needs to be some training where our local police department comes in and trains our teachers on how to respond in those situations.”
If elected, Victoria would support raising teacher salaries. “Menlo-Atherton is a nationally ranked school, and I think it’s important for us to keep that standard, not just at M-A but District-wide, and I know that means taking care of our educators,” she said.
Most importantly, Victoria highlighted her experience within the Area E community. “I truly believe that my experience working in the community for as long as I have, and being able to work specifically with our teachers, our principals, and our students from feeder districts, those two things right off the bat distinguish my campaign,” she said.
Maria Cruz
“What inspired me to run was thinking about some of the policies that are created that affect our children,” Cruz said. “I am a parent of a high school student right now, so I can take the temperature of what’s happening inside the classroom.”
Around 40% of the District’s students and 60% of Area E residents are Latino. If elected, Cruz would be the first Latina board member in over 10 years.
As the director of San Jose State’s TRIO program, which supports first-generation and low-income college students, Cruz wants to improve college preparedness and graduation rates in the District. She also wants to make the board more accessible to students. “I want to achieve a more approachable board. I think being out in the community would be a huge deal,” she said.
Cruz, who has regularly watched board meetings, made note of the debate on detracking. “They took a few honors classes away. I don’t think that has had a huge impact on the overall success of students who want to challenge themselves in any academic way,” she said. “I like the way it is right now.”
Cruz works in San Jose State’s Mexican-American studies department, so she has experience with Ethnic Studies and similar subjects. “Ethnic Studies is a hard topic to talk about,” she said. “Having a respectful conversation in these classes, I think, is imperative. We cannot ignore the world and what’s happening around us, and students need to be aware. All voices need to be heard. I don’t think it should be shut down.”
After last year’s heated meetings, Cruz hopes there will be more communication between the board and the community. “I think that we should have had a roundtable outside of the board, like a town hall. That should happen a couple times, because I think people left angry, people left frustrated,” she said.
She also advocates for increasing teacher salaries. “Teachers do not get paid what they’re worth. Teachers are the foundation of our students’ futures. Teachers are the ones who plant the seeds for children and for us,” she said.
Cruz believes her administrative and teaching experience make her a strong candidate.“I’ve also had a decade teaching experience. I bring both experience of academics and an administrative sort of background, because I do both here at San Jose State,” she said.
Jon Bryant
Bryant has worked as a substitute teacher and is the founder of several education nonprofits, including Build Play Learn Labs, an organization that leads STEM education workshops.
“I’ve been in this community for the past 20 years, and I decided that it’s time to advance education and also create opportunities for students, especially in STEM,” he said. “At the end of the day, I just believe that we need to ensure that every student, regardless of their background, has the opportunity to succeed.”
One of Bryant’s top priorities is STEM education. “I would like to see innovations within schools as far as STEM and makerspaces,” he said. “I would like to see a maker space in every school and expanded STEM classes such as science, technology, engineering, and math, to prepare students for this very diverse work world.”
Another key issue for Bryant is student wellbeing. “We should have resources in schools such as hiring additional counselors, expanding social emotional learning programs, and creating a safe space where students can seek help and address those needs at the root cause because a lot of us are dealing with stress,” he said.
Bryant believes school safety and student wellbeing go together. “I would like to make sure every school has a really solid plan when it comes to safety, because this is one of the issues that we’re all facing today,” he said. “We have to have a plan A, B, and C in place to make sure we’re properly prepared.”
Bryant advocates for detracking, but believes the District should address achievement gaps in additional ways. “I actually would support the idea of detracking, but at the same time, it needs to be done very thoughtfully,” he said. “I would like to offer high quality education and learning experiences for all students and provide them with additional support and resources. I would like to advocate for early intervention programs and more, comprehensive tutoring and strong partnerships with families to support students, both academically and emotionally.”
Bryant is a strong proponent of Ethnic Studies and its curriculum. “I feel that it offers students a deeper understanding of history and culture and diverse perspectives,” he said.
Given last year’s contentious meetings on Ethnic Studies, Bryant advocated for greater enforcement of rules. “Meetings need to stay in control. There’s rules that are involved when we have meetings. People are allotted time to speak, and if people are respecting the rules of the meeting, we won’t be leading to shouting, we won’t be running out of time. Just sticking to the rules in and of itself, I feel that would have prevented conflict,” he said.
Like Victoria and Cruz, Bryant believes teachers should be paid more. “Without teachers, we wouldn’t be able to execute all this wonderful curriculum that we have for students, so we need to pay the teachers more and also give them support to successfully execute their curriculum,” he said.
This year’s election is on Nov. 5. Register or preregister to vote here.
