Culture wars start to roil elections for California’s community college trustees

Elections for community college board seats rarely make the spotlight in California. After voting for candidates for president, U.S. Congress, and the state Legislature, many voters skip the community college races altogether. 

In Southern California, culture wars are starting to influence some of those races on this year’s ballot  — and fueling hundreds of thousands of dollars in donations. Debates over issues such as the display of pride flags also reflect tensions across many of California’s K-12 school districts, where similar topics have sparked hours-long public meetings, lawsuits, and a new wave of political action and election spending at the local level. 

The community college races aren’t as contentious as some school board races have been, said Larry Galizio, the president and CEO of the Community College League of California. Of the nearly 230 community college board races taking place this November, more than half of them have just one candidate, according to a CalMatters analysis of public data. Small or rural community college districts often have the lowest levels of participation. If there’s only one candidate for a position, counties typically cancel that race, and the sole candidate wins, by default. 

The same trend is true in California’s K-12 school districts: More than half of school board elections this November are uncontested, and many rural districts have no candidates running at all, according to an analysis of more than 1,500 school board races by EdSource. 

Still, like growing tensions at some K-12 districts, community college board meetings have become more “vitriolic” in the last few years, Galizio said. Last summer, for example, trustee Ryan Bent proposed a resolution that would ban pride flags at the three campuses in the North Orange County Community College District. Although it failed, the proposal helped galvanize his opponents. Kyle Miller, who is challenging Bent this November, has raised more than $100,000 this election cycle on a platform that emphasizes getting partisan politics out of the community college district.

In Santa Clarita, located at the northwestern edge of Los Angeles County, two opposing political action committees are getting involved in the election for trustees at their community college district, which oversees the College of the Canyons. Collectively, the candidates and their committees have raised more than $450,000, according to campaign finance records. Both committees accuse the other of focusing on partisan issues, such as diversity, equity and inclusion or presidential politics.

But most of the races this November are like the one for the Cabrillo Community College District, which encompasses most of Santa Cruz County. Two years ago, board members voted to change the name of the district’s main campus (Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo was a 16th century Portuguese explorer). After public outcry, board members delayed implementing their decision. 

Next week’s election would have been the first opportunity for voters to weigh in on the board’s delay, but the county canceled the election since all four positions were uncontested. 

“I fully anticipated to have someone to run against,” said Ken Wagman, one of the unopposed candidates for the board. “It saddens me. I think democracy is served by elections. When candidates are challenged, they’re forced to think, to communicate with their public. No one knows I’m running.”

‘Provocative political actions’ by community college leaders

Galizio said the COVID-19 pandemic helped shift the way that some residents viewed their elected college trustees. “Districts and (college) boards had to make very difficult decisions and there are always people who are opposed to those decisions,” he said. “That’s where you really started to see an increase in the intensity.”

In the past few years, many California community colleges began flying a pride flag for the first time — inciting vandalism and theft, especially in rural or historically conservative counties. Bent’s proposed resolution in Orange County would have prohibited his district’s campuses from displaying flags that represent “religious, ethnic, racial, political, or sexual orientation” identities. These flags make some people feel “unvalidated, unwelcome or unrepresented” and have led to a decline in college enrollment, Bent wrote last July in the proposal. 

Pushback came swiftly. Faculty, students, and local elected officials aligned with the Democratic Party, including Sen. Josh Newman and Assemblymember Sharon Quirk Silva, spoke out against the resolution, and it failed. 

Now, it’s part of Miller’s campaign to unseat Bent. In an interview, Miller said such policies are “provocative political actions” that draw attention but distract from more important issues, such as campus infrastructure, faculty pay, and career education.

Bent declined requests for comment. Public records show that he has raised less than $2,000 for this election. 

California law prohibits community college trustees from identifying with a political party on the ballot, but many candidates signal their party affiliation anyway, often through endorsements. Despite his campaign motto — “get politics out of education” — Miller accepted the endorsement of the Orange County Democratic Party. 

“I’m not saying nobody is political,” he said. “I’m saying you don’t let it enter your job as trustee.” 

In Santa Clarita, both political action committees agree that community college trustees shouldn’t focus on national politics or partisan issues — but they each claim their opponents are doing just that.

Wendy Brill-Wynkoop is a community college professor and the treasurer of the faculty union’s political action committee, which has supported four candidates for the Santa Clarita Community College District’s board of trustees. The race is about students, she said. 

“I don’t think it should be politicized, and we haven’t politicized it at all,” she said. “But the other side has driven in the Trump parade with the candidate signs on their cars.” 

This August, Harleen Grewal, a dentist, formed a rival political action committee, Santa Clarita Voices for Better Schools, which has supported four candidates for the community college board. Grewal denied any formal affiliation with the local Republican Party, though it has endorsed all four of her candidates. Instead, she said she formed the political action committee to fight back against the faculty union and “left-leaning” members of the board, who she said have advanced “DEI” (diversity, equity and inclusion), held “secret” board meetings, and “kicked out” the former college chancellor.

After a closed session meeting, the board placed the chancellor, Dianne Van Hook, on administrative leave this summer, without providing an explanation. Van Hook announced her retirement soon after. Around the same time, the local paper wrote an editorial, accusing the college board of violating the Brown Act, which generally prohibits public officials from meeting behind closed doors. Last week, Van Hook filed a wrongful termination claim against the district and the board.

No candidates in Humboldt

For some, a seat on a community college board is the first step in a political career. Former Gov. Jerry Brown served on the Los Angeles Community College District Board as his first elected position before becoming secretary of state and later, a two-time governor. Sen. John Laird, a Santa Cruz Democrat, and Assemblymember Mike Fong, a Monterey Park Democrat and the chair of the Assembly Higher Education Committee, both had stints as community college board members before joining the state Legislature. 

Most of the governance of a community college involves implementing new policies and overseeing budgets, contracts, and executive staff. “I’d only encourage people to run if they’re serious and they understand that it’s a different kind of (elected) position,” Galizio said. He said the majority of those who run for a board seat have “no ambition for elective office beyond community college.”

Galizio said he’s concerned that some high-profile races may yield candidates who feel beholden to the interest groups, such as unions or developers, who financed their campaigns. But he emphasized that most races don’t have this problem.

In rural areas like Humboldt County, college boards struggle to find any candidates at all. In 2020, the College of the Redwoods appointed Rebecca Robertson, a professor at Cal Poly Humboldt, after nobody ran for one of the open board seats. “It’s a responsibility and an honor to serve on the board,” she said. “Ideally there would be competitive elections and multiple people to step forward.”

This August, she filed for re-election, but no one stepped up to challenge her. Then, last month, her husband accepted a job at the community college, creating a potential conflict of interest. Robertson decided to resign from the board, but since she’s the only candidate, she’ll be re-elected anyway. 

“This is a small community, and there just aren’t a lot of people who stand up to take these positions,” she said. 

After the election, she’ll have to resign, again, so the board can appoint a successor.

Data reporter Jeremia Kimelman contributed to this reporting.

Adam Echelman covers California’s community colleges in partnership with Open Campus, a nonprofit newsroom focused on higher education.