San Mateo County Board of Education race forms

Alvaro pointed to her extensive track record in making her case to retain her seat, while Kwan, a member of the county’s Midcoast Community Council, said he would like to bring new ideas to the board.

“I want to use this mastery I’ve built of real politics and unconventional, creative thinking that I’ve done on the community council and bring it to the Board of Education,” said Kwan, a 24-year-old county native who moved to San Francisco before relocating to the coast as an adult.

As an education advocate, Kwan said he would like to realign the county board’s focus toward developing services and programs better meeting the needs of the modern student.

“Rather than having a top down, we need a bottom up education,” he said, of the board for the agency which oversees community and court schools, offers assistance to districts in financial distress and decides intradistrict transfers.

He suggested emphasis on personalized learning plans, life skills, internships and apprenticeships would be worthy initiatives the board could pursue to grant students greater authority in navigating their path through education.

“We need to have a more dynamic education model,” he said.

Alvaro, meanwhile, said the steady hand she has offered the board over the past two decades would be a useful asset in helping the county continue its work in assisting local students.

Most notably during her time on the board, Alvaro said she’s established a reputation with colleagues as a historian and a passionate advocate for those in the county court system.

“Really my niche is the experience, the history and the work with those kids,” said Alvaro, who pointed to her helping improve educational opportunities for students temporarily incarcerated as a primary accomplishment on the board.

To further improve the experience for students in the court system, Alvaro said she has also helped streamline the exchange of transcripts from school districts to assure students are able to get credit for the work they complete.

Beyond the work in court, Alvaro pointed to the board’s success in offering financial oversight to school districts, while also applying a fiscally responsible approach to managing the county’s finances.

“We’ve got a pot of money to loan to districts because we’ve been vigilant,” said Alvaro, who noted a keen eye needs to be kept toward the approaching financial threat posed by looming pension and retirement obligations.

Kwan too recognized the financial struggles facing schools as many districts locally grapple with inadequate allocations from the state budget. As a solution, he suggested improved operations as a key initiative.

“We can’t just wait for a rescue to fund our schools, we need to improve these models and make them more efficient,” he said.

He said offering greater authority to educators at school sites may help reduce turnover, increase commitment and ultimately save local schools the administrative cost of hiring new talent.

Such an approach is consistent with his philosophy that overhauling the status quo would be a needed breath of fresh air for the county board.

“What I bring to the table is change and new leadership,” he said.

Meanwhile, Alvaro said she believes she continues to do important work for students and wishes to keep those efforts up over another term.

“I feel like I’m doing a lot of good,” she said.

austin@smdailyjournal.com

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