Five vie for three seats on school board

Two young lions have roared into the race for the Petaluma City Schools Board of Education.

Gonzalo Romo, 28, and Steven Cozza, 29, are challenging incumbents Michael Baddeley, Sheri Chlebowski and Phoebe Ellis for the three seats on the five-member board. Although neither challenger has a child and neither has held an elected public office, they both say they would bring fresh ideas and a new perspective to the board.

The incumbents, although they differ in personality and on some issues, maintain the district is doing a good job and they want to continue serving through some major changes in education.

The Petaluma City Schools board, which governs both the elementary and high school districts, is in a state of flux facing capital improvements made possible by two bond measures, $19 million for the elementary school district and $69 million for the high school district, approved by the voters in June. The districts are also in the midst of implementing a new technology plan that has already included major infrastructure upgrades and is in the process of training both teachers and students in the use of the state-mandated Common Core curriculum standards.

The district is also facing some challenging issues, including a contentious labor dispute with the Petaluma Federation of Teachers, declining enrollment and a new statewide funding strategy.

Michael Baddeley

Baddeley is an attorney and long-time Petaluma resident. He and wife, Lisa, have seen three children go through the Petaluma City Schools system while his youngest child is a senior at Petaluma High School.

He was appointed to the school board in March 2010 to complete the term of Lou Steinberg and successfully ran for election in November of that year.

Baddeley has a long list of community and school involvements, including serving on the city’s Recreation, Music & Parks Commission; being a member of the Rotary Club of Petaluma; and coaching and volunteering with the Petaluma Girls Softball Association, CYO baskeball, Petaluma National Little League and the Boys & Girls Clubs of Marin and Southern Sonoma Counties. He has also been a longtime supporter of all high school athletics.

He says the current school board operates efficiently and has seen the district through some tough times, explaining, “it is an extremely high-functioning, experienced body that, during the great recession, maintained the financial viability of the district, worked hard with all of the district stakeholders to achieve the highest public high school graduation rate and the lowest drop out rate in Sonoma County and preserve almost all of our classes and programs at every level throughout the district, including music, art and our Career Technical Education programs.”

He says the board wants to take care of its teachers, but must also be aware of the fiscal realities. “We want to make our teachers happy. We want to have healthy relationships with all our bargaining units as we have historically, but we have to be fiscally prudent,” he explains. He says the district’s budget reserves are under the 10 percent that is considered the norm. “If we spend our reserves down to 3 percent at some point the state will step in. To go under 10 percent is fraught with peril. I would rather be on the conservative side and keep a healthy reserve,” he says.

Baddeley says it is important to have someone from private enterprise on government boards, explaining that, not only does he bring a business perspective to the board, but he has no special interest. “I don’t like hidden agendas,” he says. “I have a single agenda - to do what is best for children.”

He says he wants to remain on the board to help the district through the changes that are coming including the implementation of the capital improvements made possible by the bond passage, the new Common Core standards and the Local Control Funding Formula.

Sheri Chlebowski

Chlebowski has brought a varied background to the school board. She is a former police officer who earned a law degree shortly after having her first child and practiced municipal law at the city attorney’s office in Benicia. She gave up her legal career to become a full-time mother of three children, who are now in the first, fourth and fifth grades in Petaluma schools. She applied to replace Steinberg for the seat that was eventually filled by Baddeley, but won election in November, 2010, with the most votes in a five-candidate race for three board positions. She was program coordinator for the Petaluma Mothers Club, founded and served as president of Moms for Clean Air, was president of the Little Shepard Lutheran Preschool board and volunteers for Sonoma County Legal Aid.

She admits that her first term on the board “has been a steep learning curve. I see how naive I was in the beginning. It has taken me a while to understand school budgeting and now it changes. I am definitely more versed in education and way more versed in our district.”

Chlebowski was supported in her initial election by many teachers, and says the labor negotiations have been difficult.

She says that, while the board must deal with the financial realities, there are things that should be done to make the teachers feel more heard in the district. “We need to get back to shared decision making,” she says, explaining that one way to accomplish this is to make teachers co-chairs on some of the district’s many committees. “We have committees for everything,” she explains. “It would make the teachers feel more elevated if they were co-chairs.”

At the heart of the matter, she acknowledges is salaries. “We’re not getting the windfall from the state from Proposition 30 that everyone expected,” she says. “We want to spend more of our reserves, but we’re afraid to.”

She expresses concern about the district’s declining enrollment (down between 150 and 200 students). “It effects our budget a lot (more than $820,000 this year).”

Despite these problems, Chlebowski says the Petaluma City Schools are in good shape. “I think we really have a good district,” she says, pointing to the facility bonds, the implementation of the Common Core standards, new principals, alternative education programs, vocational education programs and a high graduation rate.

Phoebe Ellis

Ellis, who has a background in law and social work, was appointed to complete the term of Carolyn Tennyson on the school board last year. She is now running for election for the first time.

She has worked in the District Attorney’s office for the City and County of San Francisco and now works in her family’s business at Lace House Linen in human resources, where she also does “a little bit of everything.” She has three children, ages 9, 11 and 13 in the Petaluma City schools and is involved in the Petaluma Educational Foundation, the Boys and Girls Clubs of Marin and Southern Sonoma Counties, a number of youth sports programs and the Petaluma School of Ballet.

She says she would like to stay on the school board because “it is a good fit” for her desire to continue serving the community. “This is an incredible community. This is a way I can give back and bring my life knowledge to the table. I have the time and energy to serve,” she explains.

She says she has many friends who are teachers in the district and understands their position in the current dispute, but the district is hampered by budget constraints. “The board completely supports the teachers,” she maintains. “They are the mainstay of our education system and they haven’t gotten a raise since 2007.”

But she says the district has to be careful with its finances. “Our reserves are about 7 percent,” she says, “when the state recommends 15 percent. We continue to deficit spend. What happens on that rainy day?”

Like all the candidates, she embraces the new Common Core standards in teaching. “A lot of teachers are excited about Common Core standards,” she says. “It will allow them more creativity in their teaching.”

One of the lessons she says she has learned is that the school board doesn’t have control of everything in the district, including its own budget, which is largely determined by the state.

“The Local Control Funding Formula will give us more local control, but the state still controls a lot of our spending,” Ellis notes. She points to special education as an example. “It is a huge expense that we can’t change, and it is going way up.”

She also notes that the district receives funds from the state based on its number of students and the decline in enrollment has cost the Petaluma district “close to $1 million.”

Steven Cozza

Although he is running for public office for the first time, Cozza is no stranger to Petalumans. Until he was forced to retire for health reasons, he was a professional bicyclist who successfully raced all over the world. Since retiring and going into real estate, he has continued to give back to the community, most noticeably through is nonprofit Race for Kids that raises money for under-privileged children; through his Kids Gran Fondo, which allows kids to raise money for the same cause; and through his involvement with the Lymphoma-Leukemia Society Man/Woman of the Year competition.

His sense of justice and community service gained him attention at an early age when, as a teenage Eagle Scout, he founded the nonprofit Scouting for All, which advocated opening Boy Scouts to all, including gay youths. He was also founder of the Gay Straight Alliance at Petaluma High School.

He is endorsed and supported by the Petaluma Federation of Teachers, the North Bay Labor Council and former Congresswoman Lynn Woolsey. He has also received financial support from the California Federation of Teachers.

Cozza’s mother has been a kindergarten teacher in the district for 35 years and he also has a sister who is a teacher. He says the current dispute could have been resolved through better communication and transparency. “It could have been resolved by people listening more and not being so focused on their differences,” he maintains.

He says the district has to make teachers a priority, even if it means spending some of its reserve funds. “We are going into a very dangerous situation if teachers aren’t one of the top priorities of the district,” he says. “Their salaries aren’t keeping up with the cost of living. They haven’t had a cost of living increase in seven years.”

He also says he wants to “fully establish and enforce” the Local Control and Accountability Plan (LCAP), bring a shared decision-making approach to the district, hold open forums for teachers and parents and involve teachers and parents of Hispanic students to address the language and cultural needs of those students.

Gonzalo Romo

Romo graduated from Sonoma State University last May and wants to expand the community involvement he began in college.

He has been involved as a volunteer with a number of organizations throughout the county including Los Cien, an organization of Latino leaders dedicated to building a better future for Sonoma County.

He founded Latino Leaders at Sonoma State and serves as a community liason for Robert Stevens Elementary School in Santa Rosa.

He works for Petaluma Transit and says he would bring a needed fresh perspective to the Petaluma City Schools board.

He has studied the Local Control and Accountability Plan (LCAP) and says he would like to see it policies implemented in the Petaluma district.

He said he has found it difficult to get information about the district. “When I sought information, all the answers were vague,” he says. “I would be a visible board member. People would be able to call and ask me questions. I would talk to people from the bottom up to find out what their needs are.”

Romo has been endorsed by the Petaluma Federation of Teachers, the North Bay Labor Council and Petaluma City Councilmember Gabe Kearney.

He says that if he were on the board, he would try to solve the current labor problem by being a facilitator. “A board member should be an advocate and a facilitator,” he says. “A board member not only has to listen to both sides, but has to facilitate both sides.”

He says that while Petaluma has some of the best schools in the county, it can do better.

“We need to bring to light our deficiencies and deal with them,” he says.

Romo says he has some specific goals for the district that include: raising the rate of four-year college-ready students; increasing options for vocational education tracks; increasing student services in a fiscally responsible manner; accelerating the transition time of English language learners to standard English courses; putting a larger emphasis on responsible citizenship on students, staff and administrators; and opening lines of communication between students, parents, teachers, administrators and board members.

He acknowledges the district has the best high school graduation rate in the county, but says it can do better by all its students. “Comparing Petaluma to other school districts limits our ability to reach our full potential,” he says. “Although Petaluma schools are doing well, we are not doing as well as we can.”

(John Jackson can be reached at johnie.jackson@arguscourier.com)