Populics

By Aidan Rodriguez-Swanson

The Campbell Union High School District (CUHSD) claims to pride itself on its diversity. However, when taking a look at the current board members and their actions, you may be shocked to see the complete absence of any diversity the district claims to cherish.

While it is an overreach to say that all current and former members value diversity, as seen by comments made by recently elected board member Robert Varich and former board member Matthew Dean, the district’s diversity is generally lauded by other not-so-insensitive members.

Yet, it is important to note that the other four board members have acted in sheepish silence and complacency in light of Varich’s comments (more on those later). The board also only took a largely symbolic measure of censuring Dean for his comments; they did not pressure to resign, he instead chose to not seek reelection. The outrage of the board extended little beyond a light slap on the wrist.

First, a quick look at Matthew Dean’s comments he made in May 2018. This quote is from his interview with San Jose Inside.

“We have 50 ethnicities and 50 languages natively spoken in the district and it’s only two ethnic subpopulation that really struggle [black and Latino, he later clarified], but the other 48 cultures do well … So what’s the difference? Is it the system? I think it comes down to more of a cultural problem, a lack of parental involvement. … Until the world has ended, there’s always improvements on the system. but I think each and every one of these students has a responsibility to step up, to not just be passive and say that’s OK.”

This quote hardly warrants any explanation as to its insenstivity. For more inspiring comments of his, check the San Jose Inside article here.

His comments are without a doubt, indefensible. But silence in the face of intolerance is equally as appalling. All the other board members chimed in condemning Dean’s comments but never forcefully pushed for him to resign.

Board member Stacey Brown later said, “I pledge that moving forward I will confront bad behavior wherever I encounter it to deserve the title trustee.”

It only gets worse

Fast forward a couple months later to the 2018 Midterm Election. Enter Robert Varich, a 12 year Moreland School Board Trustee running to replace Dean. The problem is that Varich’s beliefs are worse than Dean’s. Dean’s outright ignorance paled in comparison to Varich’s right-wing rhetoric.

Varich has spread alt-right ideas and hatred by retweeting Islamophobic content from white-supremacist aligned websites, calling for California Republicans to commit voter fraud by voting in the Nevada election, comparing welfare recipients to feeding wild animals, spreading conspiracy theories and rape jokes.

Brushing off these issues brought up during the campaign as ‘divisive,’ Trustee Stacey Brown said “Some of the divisiveness we saw, to me it just doesn’t matter on the school board, it’s a nonpartisan group” (Stacey Brown, November 2018).

If only there was a board member who would condemn intolerance like Islamophobia and rape jokes.

“I pledge that moving forward I will confront bad behavior wherever I encounter it to deserve the title trustee” (Stacey Brown, June 2018).

The difference five months make.

To this day, no board member has condemned the things spread and said by Varich. Additionally, Varich himself never owned up or apologized for any of these remarks. He chose instead to clear his Twitter account of the evidence and tell his close supporters that the screenshots were ‘fake news.’

Besides the Campbell Union High School District attracting and retaining the most intolerant in our community, it has become clear that the other board members have a difficult time mustering the willpower to seriously condemn a fellow white colleague and address race in the district.

Below is a complete list of all the policy changes made to address race issues in the district since Matthew Dean’s comments:

Yes, that is the full list

A broken system that allows intolerance

At this point you may be thinking, so what? Spineless politicians won’t go out of their way to seriously address difficult, uncomfortable topics. While that may be true, there is more to the picture, the board members themselves are only a part of the larger issue that goes beyond five elected individuals.

From the CUHSD website: “Our student population is approximately 4 % African-American, 12 % Asian, 55% Caucasian, 2 % Filipino, 23 % Hispanic, .01% Native American, and .8% Pacific Islander, reflecting the well-known diversity of our community.” That is a non-white student population which totals 45%, by the way.

Yes it is great that the CUHSD website informs the reader that the student body reflects the “well-known diversity of our community,” the governing body of the school board, for at least two decades, definitely has not. The Campbell Union High School District is the ONLY high school district in the entire Santa Clara County that has not elected a minority to its board in 20+ years.

And before you think that no one has made an attempt, there have been at least five noted attempts in the last two decades of a non-white candidate running for the school board.

The problem should be clear now, there is a major discrepancy between those who attend the schools/ live in the district and those that are elected, even in elections where minorities run.

This introduces a major culprit behind this issue: the at-large electoral system. The at-large electoral system is when the entire district votes for the candidates. The problem is a hegemonic voting bloc that consistently votes for only white candidates. In addition to an electoral system that limits any chance of minority representation, it also consistently allowed fringe, anti-diversity candidates (often older, white men) to run for office and get elected with the understanding that the district’s minority voices were suppressed during the election.

To make matters worse, the remainder of the board members who are aware of this representational problem, have up until recently, remained silent in confronting this systemic issue. Could it be because this systemic issue helps their own electability, eliminating any actual desire for systemic change? Perhaps.

The Robert Varichs and Matthew Deans of the world can only exist in local politics because of feckless board member enablers and a system that is structured in such a fashion to elect them.

Fortunately, the board recently found the will-power to somewhat acknowledge the existence of this issue by voting to move to a “By-Trustee Area Election” under the California Voting Rights Act. This would break up the district into five trustee areas to allow for a better representation of minority voters.

This is from the board’s resolution to move from at-large to by-trustee elections: “WHEREAS, while the Board does not believe that its current form of elections violate the CVRA, it does believe that it is in the public interest to begin the process to transition from at-large to trustee-area elections”

This is a step forward in dismantling a broken representative system, but the board’s refusal to acknowledge the necessity of this change in their district underscores that while the systemic issues are slowly being dealt with the board members remain blind to issues that do not directly affect them.

Trustee Kristiina Arrasmith, who signed the resolution, said at the May 30th 2018 meeting, “I acknowledge the privilege that I carry and because I know I have a responsibility to work to disrupt the system that is designed to oppress others.”

Moving forward

The issue is not that there needs to be non-white board members. The issue is that despite being half of the district, no minority has been allowed a seat because of the electoral system.

The change to by-trustee elections will put an end to the hegemonic voting bloc which favors white candidates and supports the intolerant ones. It also finally opens the door for community-oriented candidates to run for elected office as opposed to individuals using the seats to run for higher office down the line. This system has given us board members who have no clue what the district actually wants, such as pointless fences around every campus.

This is not the end of intolerance in the district nor the beginning of accountability for the enablers of hate; those big changes can only come through inclusionary community-oriented networks. Networks that ultimately must demand the trustees do more to allow all voices to be heard. Whether this board is capable of such actions is another story. Luckily there are two seats up in 2020.

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Aidan Rodriguez-Swanson is a writer and editor for Populics. You can follow him on Twitter @AidanRSwanson.