Another Iron in the Fire…I’m a School Board Trustee

On December 13, 2024, I was sworn in as a Trustee for the El Dorado County Board of Education in Northern California. I have been an educator my entire career but never served in this capacity. I have, however, written frequently about school boards and the role they can play in strengthening schools. In The Courage to Collaborate - The Case for Labor-Management Partnerships, for instance, I described several school districts around the country where teacher unions, school boards, and administrators worked as partners rather than adversaries.

The benefits for these districts were clear: many obstacles preventing students from learning were removed, and teachers were more successful, better compensated, and less likely to quit.

I wrote that book in 2016, before the escalation of political polarization and the widespread culture wars we’ve witnessed more recently. Now, more than ever, it’s imperative that school board members find ways to connect in meaningful ways with educators, parents, and community leaders and with each other. If you’re familiar with the work of experts like Amanda Ripley, Monica Guzman, Peter Coleman, and Rich Harwood (all guests on this podcast and most members of our Advisory Board), effective collaboration is not about avoiding conflict. It’s about listening and seeking to understand multiple perspectives - those of parents, educators, students, and community leaders. It’s about seeking solutions to complex problems, looking for common ground, remaining hopeful, dispensing with cynicism, and not vilifying others. It’s about respecting respecting others’ dignity, even those (especially those) whose viewpoints differ from our own. It’s about modeling the kind of leadership we would hope students would emulate. It’s about keeping the main thing (student learning) the main thing.

This is the type of collaboration I am committed to as a school board member, but I want to say something about how I got elected because the lessons are relevant to what we’re aiming at with Courageous Conversations about our Schools. When my board seat opened up, I asked several leaders in my community what they thought of the idea, what a campaign would entail, and what my chances of winning would be. I’ve lived in the county for nearly 50 years, started my career teaching elementary school here, was a board member for the county’s community foundation, and have led Bridging Divides - El Dorado for the past two years. I’ve got a lot of contacts, and since most of them know I’ve been a career-long educator, most everyone encouraged me to run (my wife wisely asked me to consider whether I might already have enough irons in the fire).

I decided to run and won by a comfortable margin. But what surprised me about the campaign, since most know me as a liberal-leaning Democrat, was the number of prominent Republicans who endorsed me and donated to my campaign (even though the county’s Republican Central Committee had endorsed my opponent). Two long-time residents—one an incoming county supervisor and the other a long-time high school board member—are people I’ve worked closely with for the past two years on the county’s Bridging Divides-El Dorado initiative. I suspect because of the trust we’ve developed and the work we’ve done together during that time, they offered to host a “meet-and-greet” for me and a Republican candidate running for the county water district board. About 50 people, including many Democrats, attended the event, where I had a chance to say a few words about why I was running and my intention to listen, to create spaces for meaningful dialogue about our schools, and to work on behalf of all students in the county. Nobody questioned me about hot-button issues, but I did leave with over $1,000 in donations, most of them coming from Republicans at the event.

There’s another noteworthy part to the campaign story. Several weeks before the election, I got word that I was mentioned in several local Facebook posts. By the time I checked, I discovered over 200 comments about my opponent and me. Some were critical and a bit snarky (“Watch out, he was a college professor and obviously a lefty.” “He’s against parent involvement in schools! I’d never vote for someone like that.”). Others defended me and did their best to shame my critics (“What, you’re against an educated candidate?” “You heard he’s for common sense gun regulations. The horror!”). Many of the comments mentioned the strong character of my opponent. Against the advice of my wife, who warned against the no-win leap into the social media rabbit hole, I decided to enter the fray. I was curious to see what would happen if I didn’t get defensive and simply took the high road with a few comments of my own. To the person who said they wouldn’t vote for someone who didn’t want parents involved in school matters, I wrote, “I wouldn’t vote for someone like that either! I’m with you. We need more parent and community engagement. I hope you’ll listen to my podcast. That’s what I promote.” In another comment, I said, “As for my opponent, everything I have heard about him makes me think he’s a terrific person. I applaud his civic commitment and his interest in supporting our schools. I met him at a recent board meeting, and we wished each other well in the election.” A few posts appeared after mine, all positive, with one expressing gratitude for changing the tone of the thread. Another person thanked me for my positive comments about ‘his friend.’” And that was that. A week or so later, the online exchange simply ended.

So now the work begins. And, yes, I will continue tending to all of the other irons I’ve got in the fire, including this podcast and Teacher Stories, the first one I started about six years ago. As a board member, I am eager to begin working on critical challenges affecting our county’s schools - like chronic absenteeism, student access to cell phones in school, and the rapidly growing levels of food insecurity - with fellow board members, educators, parents, and as many community residents as we can entice to tackle these problems together.

One of the most important lessons I learned this year was from an interview I conducted with Rich Harwood. He said that to reduce polarization and create stronger communities, we must go beyond having better, more civil conversations. We have to do things together. Can’t wait to get started, and I promise to provide updates on the work from time to time.

Thanks for reading and listening. Best holiday wishes to all.