Adriana Smith, thought to be Petaluma school district’s first Latina board member, motivated by children

Smith, a vocal critic of the district’s approach to COVID-19, was sworn in last month

Adriana Smith can be the agreeable type, like when former Petaluma Mayor Pam Torliatt asked her to be a voice for the Latino community on the city’s Transportation Advisory Committee.

“I did it because they invited me,” she said. “I usually say yes.”

But when she makes up her mind, Smith, 52, rarely takes “no” for an answer, like when she had to beg her mom for permission to go to college in her native Mexico, or when her husband said she was stretched too thin to apply for the recent opening on the Old Adobe Union School District Board of Education.

“My husband said, ‘No, stop it; you don’t have time,’” Smith said, before pivoting to her reason for wanting the job – dissatisfaction with the district’s direction, particularly as it applied to her 10-year-old son Moises Adrian Smith, who has a learning disability.

So she responded to her husband, Gary Smith, simply.

“But it’s Moises,” Adrian Smith said.

Smith was officially sworn in last month, and she is thought to be the first Latina board member for the 42% Latino school district. Smith said she aims to represent that community strongly, while also pushing the district and its superintendent toward a different approach on COVID-19 and teacher relations, topics about which Smith has been an outspoken critic at a series of board meetings during the pandemic.

“I may not be able to fix it for Moises, but I might be able to fix it for other kids,” she said.

Smith moved to Petaluma when she was 30, remembering the community from a trip during her teenage years that also included a Disneyland visit. She considers the vacation, which served as an alternative to a big, showy quinceanera, a fair trade.

That might be because Smith, an eligibility specialist for Sonoma County’s Human Services Department, found her dream hometown in Petaluma, even if it has perplexed family and friends occasionally.

Her husband once asked her “What is it with you and Petaluma?” Smith said, laughing over coffee on Petaluma’s east side.

She’s got a ready answer.

“I love the culture, I love the community, I like the people,” she said. “They welcomed me as a Hispanic person so well that I consider myself a Petaluman.”

Smith was born in in Tuxtla Gutierrez, the capital city for Chiapas, deep in the heart of southern Mexico. The oldest of four children, Smith graduated from college in Puebla, Mexico, near Mexico City, and earned a master’s in business administration back in Chiapas.

Since she begged her mom for the chance to go to college, education has been important to Smith. She continued her education in Sonoma County, earning a degree at Santa Rosa Junior College in English as a second language and child development education.

So when the COVID-19 pandemic threw civic life into tumult, shuttering schools across the country, Smith – and many other parents – turned toward what their children were missing.

Smith got involved, in earnest, when Old Adobe Union School District suspended its traditional graduation ceremony and activities for the district’s 42 graduating 6th graders. So Smith, whose 12-year-old son “Sparky” Smith, was set to graduate, and another mom organized an in-person graduation at Lucchesi Park on June 4. Attendance to the outdoor, socially distanced ceremony reached nearly 100%, with graduates’ parents writing short speeches to celebrate their students. The next day, there was a pool party at another graduate’s house, Smith hosted a movie night at Petaluma Boulevard Cinemas. Finally, a group of students were treated to a day at Six Flags in Vallejo, and later that month, graduates attended a San Francisco Giants home game against the Phillies.

“I said, we are not going to let our kids down just because of COVID,” Smith said, adding via email that “the graduates did not pay for anything.”

After that series of celebrations, a new school year would start, and Smith would again find herself at odds with the district’s approach to COVID-19.

Just a month after the school year started, Moises’ fifth-grade class was one of a handful across the district that were forced back home after a series of positive COVID-19 tests among the student body. Unlike Petaluma City Schools, which instituted outdoor mask recommendations, limiting the reach of mandatory quarantines, Old Adobe initially took no such steps, meaning hundreds of students missed class time.

Smith said after three days at home, her son, frustrated and depressed due to the isolation, confided in her.

“One day, he said, ‘Mom, I am so done with this I want to kill myself,” Smith said.

Smith emailed Superintendent Sonjhia Lowery, who was hired June 2020, mid-pandemic, to replace longtime teacher and administrator Craig Conte.

Although Smith has been a vocal critic of Lowery and the district, she was hesitant to offer critique after her appointment, saying she is willing to give Lowery a fair shot.

Lowery, for her part, said she was happy to have Smith’s passion and energy on the board as the school district continues to grapple with big challenges.

“I would say that she is passionate and has brought a lot of energy and fresh perspective to the governance team,” Lowery said. “I think she is a great addition.”

Smith was also endorsed by the Old Adobe Union Teachers Association, which had publicly lambasted Lowery during tense contract negotiations. And her appointment was fraught, with the popular progressive group Indivisible Petaluma throwing its support largely behind Kinyatta Reynolds, a Black woman.

Smith, who said she was offended by what she saw as belittling remarks about her appointment from Indivisible Petaluma online, called out the group by name when she was sworn in. And has no qualms with saying she was the best person for the job.

“I’m Hispanic…I understand the culture in this culture…I understand Hispanic culture…I have a child with special needs…” Smith said.

Tyler Silvy is editor of the Petaluma Argus-Courier. Reach him at tyler.silvy@arguscourier.com, 707-776-8458, or @tylersilvy on Twitter.