Las Virgenes School Board Candidates Stress Need For Leadership

CALABASAS, CA — As students within the Las Virgenes Unified School district continue to learn remotely due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, the three candidates vying for two seats on the school board on November 3 agree that the district’s response to the pandemic has been largely effective in meeting students’ needs. But they also also concur that there is always work still to be done on a number of fronts.

In a 90-minute candidate forum held on Zoom Thursday night, incumbent board member Linda Menges and challengers Kate Vadehra and Kiyomi Kowalski addressed issues facing a district that continues to see declines in enrollment and that must deal with budgetary challenges due to those declines as well as the economic downturn brought on by the pandemic.

Facing questions that were chosen from more than 1,300 student submissions, the three candidates discussed issues of how the district is dealing with racial injustice and inequity, class size, student mental health, district finances, the environment and other issues facing educators and students in such an uncertain time.

Menges, the mother of six who has served on the school board since 2015, characterized the district as being a destination and one that has served as a leading example of how schools can provide effective education remotely until students can return safely to the classroom.

Kowalski serves as a community volunteer and is also a veteran of the U.S. Marines and is seeking to become the first non-white member of the district’s school board. Kowalski, the mother of a 5- and 13-year-old, stressed the need for more diversity in hiring in a district where she said 91 percent of the teaching faculty is white, which she said Thursday, fails to effectively serve a student population that the racial make-up of the faculty is not representative of the district community.

She said that school officials have not sought out Black candidates to fill open teaching positions, which she said she would strive to change if elected.

“I hear equity and I hear inclusion and I’m hearing diversity but I’m hearing words and I’m not seeing actions or deeds,” Kowalski said Thursday.

Vadehra seeks a seat on the board as the director of a not-for-profit who has worked as a pediatrician and who has volunteered in the district for 14 years. Her expertise as a medical professional, she said, would be extremely valuable as the district continues to deal with a pandemic that Vadehra said has no finish line in place.

Vadehra, who has also had children go through the district, believes that every student in the district deserves the opportunity to learn equitably and said that her experience volunteering in various roles has provided her with the insight needed to help guide the district’s decision-making over the next four years.

But, she said, navigating difficult times can only be accomplished if school leaders work together.

“We’re in the midst of a public health crisis, a pandemic and a crisis in education and unfortunately, the pandemic is not going away any time soon,” Vadehra said. “…We will face many challenges moving forward to get our students back to school and keep them in school and we need leaders who will work together to help guide our district through this time.”

As the district continues to wait for an in-person return, Menges, Kowalski and Vadehra all agree that school officials face challenging times ahead. With enrollment declining by 2 percent each year, the issue of the number of permit students the district allows (currently at 22 percent) along with how budgetary concerns impact class size throughout the district needs to remain a priority, all three candidates agreed during Thursday’s forum.

All three candidates said that the community could play a bigger role in helping the district solve some of its issues, which they said makes the upcoming election especially important in filling the two open seats on the board.

As the lone incumbent seeking re-election, Menges said her five years of working on the school board provides her a track record of seeing how the district has handles issues in the past. But she said that the leadership experience she brings will continue to play a valuable role if re-elected.

“I intend to keep us a destination district,” Menges said. “Proven, consistent leadership is more important than ever.”