Olga Espinoza, a community leader and advocate, is running for the Area 4 seat on the Sweetwater Union High School District board of trustees. The San Diego Union-Tribune asked all the candidates running for school board in districts around San Diego County about their policies, plans and priorities. Here’s what Espinoza told us about hers. Why are you running for school board? What makes you a good candidate? I’m running for school board to make a change in our community with our children’s education. I want our children to get the best public education within our district. I want to support our teachers’ needs, staff and counselors to have a safe school environment. Olga Espinoza (Courtesy Olga Espinoza) I have been a parent advocate for more than 20 years, a community leader for 25-plus years and very active in support of our many families and children — advocating for our community needs, as I’m doing right now for the air quality due to the smell from the Tijuana River Valley sewage problem. What is the most important issue currently facing your school district? Declining enrollment is one of the top issues our district is facing, and it’s something we need to work on. Finding the cause and solution, to continue the interest of our childrens’ needs and stay in our public schools, I would want our students to focus on a future career, graduate from our district and continue a successful college and university set after graduation. What are the top three specific things you would seek to accomplish on the school board? I would work on continuing parent participation in our schools. Parent engagement is a plus for our students’ academic success and achievements. I want to have a safer school environment for all our district schools, protecting our teachers, students and all staff. I want to improve new electives that help students build careers. What would your approach be to district budget planning and spending? What would you do if your district had a budget shortfall? In order to improve the budget, we need the local stakeholders to have a voice in the budget process. I would not like a shortfall, but in case (of one), we will have cuts — but not from our students’ classrooms. It would be something temporary, an immediate emergency intervention to get out of this situation. How should your school district raise student academic achievement, and what would you do as a school board member to accomplish that? Relying on a managing team that is not focused on testing our children to get results. It’s better to go day by day and see our students’ daily achievements to have a better academic result. Do you think anything currently offered in school curricula or libraries should be removed? If yes, what, and why? If no, why not? Nothing needs to be cut. All students have an inclusive plan and deserve a well-rounded education to succeed. More electives are needed to have more future careers for our students. What do you think is driving student absenteeism in your district, and what would you as a school board member do to reduce it? Getting our students motivated to go to school is a very important part of our school district. Finding the reasons why certain days they’re absent — is it an activity that was said to happen, something specific about the day? We need to ask questions in order to find a solution. This district needs to create a vision with creativity to have our kids have a chance and continue going to school. Do you think schools should notify parents if their child’s gender identity or presentation at school changes? Why or why not? No, our schools should keep our children’s gender identity private, as it is the state law not to tell parents. It is for the safety of our students and children. We do not want our children to become victims of abuse and get hurt due to the district violating confidentiality.