For Shame: The People of Emeryville Don't Care Enough About Their Schools To Hold Their School Board To Account
Government Failure is What You Get When Democracy Fails
The Vote is Supposed to be How We Fix This
Opinion/News Analysis
The two incumbents running for Emeryville school board failed to appear at the League of Women Voters Candidate Forum held on October 17th. It’s not that they were too busy, we know that because the League, thinking the voters need to hear from the incumbents, rescheduled the forum after the two failed to appear the first attempt. But the incumbents failed to appear at the League’s second attempt as well. They didn’t appear at the public forum because accountability makes them uncomfortable. But more than that, they failed to appear in public because they know they don’t have to. They know they're going to win no matter how much they offend the voters.
The incumbents don’t have to face the people of Emeryville because the people of Emeryville will elect them on Tuesday regardless. Seen from their perspective: why should they face uncomfortable questions from the League of Women Voters when they don’t have to? It’s the same reason the two incumbents do not answer questions from their constituents including even parents with children enrolled at Emery. Again, why face uncomfortable questions from angry parents or constituents when they don’t have to? Inside the cynical world they live in, there’s no reason to. So they don’t.
 |
| School board incumbent Regina Chagolla She helped drive Emery down to LAST PLACE and failed to show up for the League of Women Voters Candidate Forum. |
The culture of unaccountability at the Emery school board is why our school district just moved from second to last to last place among all Alameda County school districts this year. If the board, and therefore the superintendent of the schools doesn’t have to worry about good governance, then they won’t care about it. And Emery in last place is what we get.
Usually, there’s not even elections in Emeryville for school board trustee. That’s because the people of Emeryville don’t care about their schools and so nobody wants to run against a slate of incumbents. When that happens, the Alameda County Registrar of Voters cancels the election and the incumbents stroll right into the job again.
Everybody knows and likes everybody within the comfortable confines of the school board. It's like a coffee klatch there. Virtually every vote of consequence is 5-0 because there’s a ‘go along to get along’ culture on the board. When one of them grows weary of sitting on the board they simply quit, they don’t wait to fill out their term. That way, their friends on the board get to appoint a replacement. Then the replacement runs next election as an incumbent and the whole cycle begins anew. This is the way it has gone for decades - until six years ago when Emeryville Tattler editor Brian Donahue started running to force elections so the incumbents would have to face the voters. Because of this, Emeryville voters get to see a ballot every two years with the names of candidates on it.
So after decades of cancelled elections, starting six years ago the voters finally were given a choice for how their school district should be run. And what have Emeryville voters done with their choice? They have voted for the incumbents, every time, assuring the culture of failure continues on at the little school district.
 |
| School board incumbent Kimberly Solis She refuses to respond to parents and she contributed to Emery's failure as a school district. She also failed to show up for the League of Women Voters Candidate Forum. |
A vote for the incumbents is a vote for the status quo of government failure and ultimately for the prospects of the children in our community. The Emery school board drove the district down to last place: that is failure. The school district has been on the bottom or near it for decades because of the people of Emeryville don’t care enough about their schools to demand or even ask for anything better than failure.
The two incumbents running this time are Regina Chagolla and Kimberly Solis. Both were appointed to their position of board member by their friends on the Emery school board in 2020. Kimberly Solis quit the board in 2022 but now she put herself back at the last possible minute because Brian Donahue forced an election.
After their friends on the board appointed Ms Chagolla and Ms Solis, there was no election for the three Emery Unified School District board seats in November 2020. Two years later, Ms Solis quit but Ms Chagolla ran in the election Brian Donahue forced. The people of Emeryville voted for all the incumbents that year as they have done every year there’s been an election. Both Ms Solis and Ms Chagolla are not accountable to the people of Emeryville (even though they are paid to be) and Ms Solis has never faced Emeryville voters (until now).
Regardless of the broken culture at Emery, it can be stated with near absolute certainty the voters of Emeryville will reward the failed incumbents with their votes again this year. The incumbents will win on Tuesday. That much is known. What’s unknown is when will the people of Emeryville decide to care enough about their schools to do something about the culture of unaccountability and failure. In the meantime, against all odds and not even wanting to win, the editor of the Tattler will keep forcing elections by running. We are trying for something different; we wait until somebody outside of this cynical doom loop steps up and runs for Emery school board: somebody who doesn’t want to go along to get along, somebody willing to be held to account, somebody who actually wants to and is willing to do the work to make Emeryville's schools better.
The wait continues….
The failure at Emery Unified School District is highlighted HERE.
The League of Women Voters Candidate Forum is HERE.
