San Luis Coastal Unified School District voters living in the zone containing Los Ranchos and Sinsheimer elementary schools must choose between the different versions of equity touted by two candidates battling for the Trustee Area 6 seat.
Incumbent Eve Hinton, who first won the trustee post in 2020 when she was known as Eve Dobler-Drew, has more than 20 years of experience as a bilingual certificate classroom teacher. She’s being challenged by attorney and school district parent Erica Baltodano. It’s Baltodano’s first time running for any elected office.
“Our current school board is aware of the achievement or opportunity gap that we see in our schools. I just hope to really maybe bring, … just added urgency. … You need to really ensure that we are serving all of our students, including our socioeconomically disadvantaged students, our English language learners, students with disabilities, students across the spectrum,” she said. “As my background is in civil rights law, that equity focus is something that I will certainly bring to all decision-making on the board.”
A founding board member of San Luis Coastal Education Foundation, Baltodano is already familiar with working toward equity. The foundation prioritizes removing barriers to colleges and careers for socioeconomically disadvantaged students.
According to campaign finance filings, Baltodano raised $10,859 between Jan.1 and Sept. 21. Some of her contributors are from the SLO County Democratic Party, 3rd District Supervisor Dawn Ortiz-Legg’s campaign committee, and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers’ Political Action Committee Educational Fund.
She’s also canvassing to gauge parents’ needs from the school district.
“Some of those frustrations come from families with students with disabilities, and they have been frustrated in terms of being able to get services that they believe they are entitled to under the law,” Baltodano said.
Kids’ security is a major concern for parents too. Last year, a former SLO High School student sued the school district and former basketball coach and history teacher Jeff Brandow, claiming she was the victim of grooming, manipulation, intimidation, and unwanted physical touching by Brandow. The school board unanimously voted to terminate him following investigation of the allegations of misconduct.
Baltodano added that parents raised the issue of accountability.
“In the workplace, there’s always power differentials, and there’s an absolute power differential when you’re talking about a student and a teacher,” she said. “I will be absolutely vigilant about ensuring that we are upholding California law and making sure that every adult that is engaging or interfacing with students is appropriately and timely and repeatedly trained on what is appropriate so that administrators have the proper training on how to handle complaints when they arise.”
Parents have also asked Baltodano her stance on book banning, and she highlighted the school district’s robust policy of vetting books. While the heated conversation around book banning wasn’t as controversial when she first entered the school district as a parent, she’s noticed changes over the years.
“I have observed increasing anxiety, particularly from our students of color and immigrant families, just because the tenor of conversations happening at a national level do trickle down into communities and into our community at times,” she said.
One way to handle the flaring tension: advocating for more effective mental health resources for youth.
Baltodano also said that she’s heard from students and her kids that they want more diversity in their Advanced Placement classes.
“For example, they want to make sure that when students speak to a counselor and indicate a desire to take an honors course or reach for that advanced course, that the counselor is supporting them and making that possible,” she said.
Baltodano’s opponent Hinton declined to speak with New Times. Her campaign website touts her as the “conservative choice” and states that she was an “early adopter of equity in the classroom.”
“Mrs. Hinton brings with her 25 years of bilingual education in elementary schools,” the website said. “Dedication and passion to immerse the young Spanish speakers into the challenging English language AND get the English speakers to engage with their Hispanic classmates.”
Her campaign’s raised $1,750 between Jan. 1 and Sept. 21, with donations from SLO residents Leslie Halls and Charles Watry.
In 2020, Hinton—then Dobler-Drew–created Facebook and Twitter posts carrying misinformation about the Black Lives Matter protests, a caption referring to philanthropist Melinda Gates as “satanic,” and a YouTube video link from a group called Changed that describes itself as a community of former queer people who left their orientations to embrace Christianity.
The posts were deleted soon after, but they sparked a poll to assess the level of community interest for a recall effort against Hinton. Then Mayor Heidi Harmon also shared the poll and asked Hinton to step down during the public comment period of a school district board meeting, according to The Tribune.
“We believe many [school district] voters did not realize Dobler-Drew held these views and instead voted for her based off the strength of her ballot designation as a ‘retired teacher’ and her ballot statement that touted her years of experience in education,” the poll read.
Baltodano declined to comment on possible differences between her approach to equity and Hinton’s. She encouraged people to attend school district board meetings and added that she’s been going to them for the past year and a half.
“And I think also that my formal training as an attorney, and the work that I have done, not just in our community, but for a decade in Los Angeles serving underserved communities, low-income communities, communities of color, immigrant communities, all of that shapes who I am and the work that I will bring to the table or the perspective that I will bring to the table,” she said, “and I look forward to having that opportunity.” Δ
Reach Staff Writer Bulbul Rajagopal brajagopal@newtimesslo.com.
This article appears in Oct 10-20, 2024.