Sunday, August 31, 2008
VTA backs three in school board race
North County Times
The Vista Teachers Association has picked the three candidates it plans to endorse in the Nov. 4 election for three open seats on the Vista Unified school board. The picks are incumbent Steve Lilly, a retired educator, and two district parents, Elizabeth Jaka and Angela Chunka. Six candidates are running for the three seats on the Vista Unified School District Board of Directors. The winners will serve four years. Chunka, Jaka and Lilly are running against incumbent Stephen Guffanti and challengers Patty Anderson and Eileen Fernandez. The third seat is held by David Hubbard, who did not file for re-election.
The Vista Teachers Association endorsement has historically played a large role in school board campaigns, as the union typically spends tens of thousands of dollars to promote the candidates it picks. The union doesn't give money directly to candidates, but spends it on signs, pamphlets and phone calls, intended to help them get elected. The picks don't come as much of a surprise, as the other three candidates have long been critics of the union and the candidates it has endorsed. Guffanti, a physician who has been on the board for the last eight years, and Fernandez, who runs home-based business, didn't ask for the union's support. "If the candidates do not interview, we cannot endorse them," said Jan O'Reilly, president of the association. Anderson interviewed with the union's selection committee, but didn't get its endorsement. As a teacher and member of the California Teachers Association, Anderson said she wants to do what she can to help "clean up" the union from the inside and focus on educational quality.
The union picked the candidates because they have proven to be avid supporters of public education, while the other candidates have not, O'Reilly said. Lilly was first elected to the board with the support of the union in 2004, the same year he retired as dean of education at Cal State San Marcos. Jaka, a retired day care professional with a daughter who attends a school in the district, first ran for the board two years ago. She didn't get the union's endorsement with that run. This is the first try for the board for Chunka, an instructional aid with two children in district schools. She said she thinks the endorsement from the teachers union will be a tremendous boon to her campaign. "That they want to back me, that they have confidence in me is huge for me," she said. "People trust their teachers."
The district's other union, which basically represents all of the employees who aren't certificated teachers, will hold a candidate forum Tuesday and choose its endorsements then. The forum is open to the public and is scheduled to start at 4:30 p.m. at Bobier Elementary School, 220 W. Bobier Drive.
Contact staff writer Stacy Brandt at (760) 901-4009 or sbrandt@nctimes.com.