In 2018, Eric Aguinaga won a seat on the school board. During Aguinaga´s tenure, he states his main focus in Zone 2 of the district comes down to student and staff safety, fiscal responsibility with the school budget, and reducing class sizes. Though, he states he only ever wanted to serve one term.

     “If I felt that there were people that were able to carry on the mission,” said Aguinaga,  “then I could say, ‘I would be done.’ I feel there are three really good gentlemen on the board, but they’re going to carry on the same mission that we’ve been working on.”

     With the election coming to an end on May 16, Aguinaga´s seat will be filled by one of three individuals: Ryan Mattingly, Lyle Utt, and Benjamin Watts. Another seat, in zone 3, is being fought for by Sean Taylor and Michael Thomson, who is running for reelection.

Lyle Utt was originally part of the budget committee, Utt served on the school board as a member from 2011 to 2018 in the seat later filled by current board member Micheal Thompson. 

     ¨I assisted in the passage of the bond that started the reconstruction and replacement of West Albany High School,” Utt said.

      Utt’s main focus, if elected to the school board, will be on monitoring the board and trying to keep it out of the news; he stated that currently, they have too much unwanted exposure. Utt said that this kind of news attention, for example following the non-renewal of superintendent Melissa Goff’s contract in 2021 and the recent non-renewal of two other district leaders’ contracts, will make it more difficult to retain and hire teachers.
        Along with that, he stated the importance of parent involvement with the school board meetings, especially Spanish-speaking parents who he feels should be outreached to more for their involvement.

        “If you look at the population of Spanish-speaking parents in our district, that’s a huge section of parents in our district,” Utt said. “By ignoring them, you’re not reaching some of those parents and, thus, getting them engaged and keeping their kids on track to graduate.”

Ryan Mattingly went to school, gaining a degree in special education and for 14 years he was the special program director for the district, having retired in 2020. During his time in the position, he oversaw special education in partnership with nursing, having to work with social workers as well. 

       “Essentially, I managed those departments, the budgets, the staff and sort of supervised the roles of those,” Mattingly said.

        He stated that the direction the district is heading in is the right one, but would like more priority when it comes to student learning rather than conflict. Mattingly said that adult problems need to be kept out of schools, such as with the termination of staff.

       “That’s been an issue that’s taken up time during the board meetings,” Mattingly said, “which has led to some uncivil conversation. I think there’s been a lot of push and pull on curriculum issues, issues that aren’t really relevant to classrooms.”

      With what he state, his whole career being around students with disabilities, Mattingly wants those students to get access to the programs they need, and he wants to help students who struggle in a traditional classroom setting.

       “I want to make sure we have options for all kids,” said Mattingly. “so that all kids can find a niche.” 

The main goal of his running, Sean Taylor said, is to take care of the community, helping with the future. He wants to make a point that he is not a politician. 

    “I’m doing this just because I care about the community,” Taylor said,  “and my kids are going to be a part of the future of this community.”

      Having found his job in contracting and gaining a small business through odd jobs during college, Taylor states that he had to work his way up in his career field to get where he is now. He believes in the worth of not just going straight into a university right after high school.

      “I see the value of going to a four year college,” said Taylor, “but I also can see the value of people that either just want to start working right after high school… [or go into] technical school or some kind of career learning along those lines that isn’t necessarily a four year college. There can be immense value in that.” He feels that just having opportunities that concur with a student’s passion and skills is the best way to find out what they love. 

Benjamin Watts stated that at the top of his list is equity Watts. He stated that he wants to focus on learning about others and their struggles along with their different perspectives. Watts said that he noticed its importance well in the military, after meeting a young man on a bus for basic training, who got shocked at the sight of a cow, he had never seen one before in person. 

  “A good example of the types of lived experiences that are just kind of foreign to me,” Watts said, “… I want to work with members of the community with parents and students to understand

 what the challenges and the barriers are and to help develop tools to overcome those barriers or remove the barriers…”

        Along with equity, Watts stated that he also wants to focus on learning loss in-district students as well as improving access to behavioral and mental health resources in schools which will, in turn, help with that learning loss.

        “By addressing behaviors in the classrooms and having professionals who can help students and help teachers know the warning signs of when somebody is going into a crisis.”

Micheal Tomason stated that when the pandemic occurred, the school board complied with protocols,which included limited contact with individuals leading to the exclusion of in-person comments when board meetings moved online. In recent months, the school board has gone away from Zoom meetings and back over to in-person meetings that are open to the public, however. Thomson says that he wants to help bring back public involvement.

      “We have to. We have to figure out a way to allow people to participate” Thomson said. “We had to figure out a way for those people to comment if they wanted to.”

       Though there are listening sessions where the community can give input, Thomson stated they are missing transparency with the public and says he wants to help get more community input.

        “I get bits and pieces of the other [listening sessions], but I don’t get much, and there’s no record taken, so it kind of just exists in the air and goes away,” Thomson said. “And I just think this is a time especially when we have some contentious issues.”