Endorsed by CSEA Chico Chapter 110
Endorsed by the Chico Enterprise-Record
Few elected positions serve a more traditional — and important — role than that of a governing board member of a school district.
For generations, it’s been nothing short of a backbone of the country: concerned parents and citizens holding the purse strings while providing direction to the education of our most precious commodity, our youth.
Like just about anything else in today’s world, it’s been politicized. It’s not uncommon to see governing boards dominated by lifelong educators, usually those who are members of all-powerful public employee unions. Right or wrong, that’s led to a narrative that some school boards care more about the teachers than the students.
Still, we think one candidate stands above the others. And since he just happens to be from outside the career-educator mold, we can’t help but think there’s an opportunity here that can’t be overlooked.
That’s just one reason we’re endorsing Lance Atkins for CUSD Area 5.
This was an easy choice for our editorial board. While challengers Caitlin Dalby (a former board member who lost her seat in redistricting) and Amy Ford both struck as as knowledgeable, dedicated public servants who would represent their district well, Atkins won us over in a big way by being, for lack of a better term, “the kind of guy we’d want looking out for our kids at school.”
We were also won over by his concerns about the state of discourse; anybody who has witnessed some of the behavior at a few CUSD board meetings through the years should be too. Noting the “public has lost faith” in much of the education system, he speaks with the determination of a parent who’ll keep his eye on what’s most important while doing what he can to restore trust. And perhaps most impressively of all, he comes across as somebody who’ll listen to the concerns of all before making a decision.
“People want to send their kids to school and know that they’re focusing on the right things,” he said. “That is a value — focusing on the reading, writing, math and science.”
We agree. Atkins speaks the language of the common person who sometimes wonders if their views are still being heard in these arenas. He’ll be a great fit on the CUSD governing board.
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