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UPDATE: On Dec. 11, the school board approved Mele Latu’s provisional appointment in a 3-0 vote, with Trustee Marielena Gaona-Mendoza absent. Latu will be sworn in with two newly elected trustees at the board’s next meeting.
Mele Latu, who made an unsuccessful bid for the Ravenswood City School District Board of Education in the November election, will be appointed to fill a vacant seat on the board, trustees agreed on Thursday night.
The board members will formally vote on Latu’s appointment at their next meeting on Nov. 10, but all three present trustees agreed to support her. Latu will replace Stephanie Fitch, who resigned in October, citing family circumstances that meant she would no longer be an East Palo Alto resident. The board quickly decided to appoint her replacement rather than hold a costly special election.
Latu’s selection as the final candidate on Thursday came after a rocky meeting during which one trustee left early due to frustration with the process. The board invited four candidates to come for in-person interviews at the district office, with all attendees wearing masks and sitting far apart from each other — and the microphones. The audio quality was poor for much of the meeting, which the public attended virtually, and even cut out at one point.
Trustee Marielena Gaona Mendoza, who herself had applied for Fitch’s seat, and community members also criticized the board for not allowing people who had submitted late applications to be considered and in one case, that they initially excluded one applicant who did not feel safe participating in an in-person interview. (Later in the meeting, the board decided to conduct an interview with her over Zoom.)
Gaona Mendoza, who lost her bid for a second term on the board in the November election, said the application process was unfair and “rigid.” She was among several people whose applications were thrown out because they didn’t see a 5 p.m. deadline that was listed online but not on the paper application. The three other trustees — Board President Ana Maria Pulido, Vice President Sharifa Wilson and Trustee Tamara Sobomehin — agreed to “stick to the process” and not allow late applicants to participate.
The trustees interviewed Latu, a community collaboration manager for the Emerson Collective; Laura Nunez, an East Palo Alto Academy teacher who ran unsuccessfully in the 2018 school board election; Toby Goldberg, school programs manager at Palo Alto nonprofit Environmental Volunteers; district parent Lileiti Grew; and Michelle Sambrano, a parent and partner executive at Hitachi Data Systems.
They asked each candidate to answer the same eight questions about why they wanted to apply for the position, their experience in education, major issues facing the school district and how they work as a team member. The board members then chose their top two candidates, which were unanimously Nunez and Latu.
Pulido, Wilson and Sobomehin lauded both as qualified candidates with deep roots in the community who would serve the district well.
But Pulido and Wilson advocated more for Latu, citing her work in youth mental health and representation of the Pacific Islander community. Latu worked on One East Palo Alto’s behavior health advisory group ambassador team, which provided culturally competent crisis support to middle school students who experience trauma as a result of violent crime in East Palo Alto. In that role, she worked directly with students at Ronald McNair Academy, Cesar Chavez Academy and the Ravenswood Middle School. The two trustees said having a board member with a deeper understanding of social-emotional health during school closures that could last until the summer is critical.
And Ravenswood hasn’t had a Pacific Islander board member in at least eight years, Wilson said, arguing that Latu’s appointment could increase that community’s engagement in the schools.
“It would be outstanding if this board reflected the population in this district,” she said. “To me, the board would reflect what East Palo Alto is, the broad diversity that we bring to the table.”
Sobomehin, who ran on a reform slate with Nunez in 2018, argued for Nunez’s perspective as a high school teacher with direct classroom experience — particularly given Ravenswood’s recent focus on better preparing students for success in high school. But with the other two trustees backing Latu, Sobomehin ultimately said she’ll support her.
Latu attended Clifford School in Redwood City and graduated from Menlo-Atherton High School in 2009. She works at the Emerson Collective’s Bloomhouse site in East Palo Alto, which is “part of the long-term vision for Emerson Collective to partner with the local community in creating the future of the East Palo Alto waterfront,” its website reads. In a previous interview for her election bid, she said she would focus on creating “togetherness” in a district that’s gone through leadership transitions, financial upheaval and is threatened by outside forces of gentrification and housing affordability. She pointed to her “network and rapport within the community” as a source for building stronger relationships in the district.
Though Latu paused her school board campaign for personal reasons, she came in fifth place with 2,047 votes, according to official election results certified by the San Mateo County Elections Office on Thursday.
Once approved, Latu will serve the remainder of Fitch’s appointment, until December 2022. She’ll join the two newly elected trustees: former Ravenswood teacher Bronwyn Alexander and parent Jenny Varghese Bloom.
“No process is perfect,” Pulido said before adjourning the meeting, “but we feel like the outcome is representative of who we are as a community and where we’re headed.”
According to Latu’s Facebook she is going through cancer treatment, how and might be one of the reasons why she had to stop her campaign. How in the world would she be doing this job? They will have to appoint someone else soon. Not the best choice. I just hope next time they will do better with the process. This time it was a mess from the beginning to the end. This is probably why they throw away the rest of the applications because they already had in mind who did they want. It is not a secret.
Yes, in fact, this board meeting was a circus besides not being able to hear what was going on during the first four interviews. The way the board members acted, except for Ms. Gaona-Mendoza, they were absolutely ridiculous, it was as if they were some kind of God or Donald Trump, and if someone misbehaved, they had to be punished. Furthermore, they never admitted that they made a mistake, which they in fact did. I understand that this was the first time they did this process and nothing wrong with making mistakes, but not admitting to it is what made them look so bad. It seemed like the only one who had a common sense was Trusted Gaona, who criticized them in public for not allowing the other applicants to be interviewed when it was an error on their part not on the applicants. Anyway, even if they had been interviewed the late applicants it was not going to change the outcome. As it was clear that Sharifa and Pulido were going to vote for Latu (because they worked together at East Palo Alto One and because she has cancer and perhaps they want to grant her a last wish). Sobomehin wanted Ms. Nunez because they ran together in the last election, and during the last meeting, she said she wanted someone like Ms. Fitch, and no other applicant was like her except Ms. Nunez, in fact Sobomehing encouraged her to apply. It was in their best interest not to interviewed the other applicants because they had their minds set up already who they were voting for. In a way, they save time for the late applicants who were not going to be chosen even if they had the best qualifications. When the applications came late, they were glad because they just trashed them and not had to deal with them. This made the board members’ jobs easier. However, this is not what democracy is about. This district will continue to be a corrupted one, no matter who serves on the board, I never expected this from Sobomehing, I did expect from Wilson and Pulido, this is the way they have always acted. Ms. Wilson cannot put his anger aside when things do not go her way. It was ridiculous to hear their arguments when they did not want to allow one of the applicants to be interviewed because she refused to put herself at risk. This was calling for a discrimination suit. They are so naive and egocentric, they could not see that, except Trustee Gaona, and the public speakers Too bad Ms. Gaona is leaving, there were board meetings when she was the only one who made sense especially when Hernandez was super. The other board members need to learn to be humble like her. But this might be a trait you are born with and it does not matter if you went to Harvard, Stanford, or el Chrizo University, you will never get it, unless you are born with it or you make an extra effort to learn it and practice to become humble and be open to other ideas. Ms. Gaona, Thanks for your service and dedication to our children and our district, also thanks because thanks to you and your complaining with the board and Sudaria, two of the bathrooms at RMS have been completely remodeled. My kids call it the Gaona’s Bathroom and they only want to use those two. At least the kids will remember you for that, and I will remember you for standing up to the rest of the egocentric board members who sounded so bad when they argued that the district employees were working and that Ms. Wilson was at the board meeting in-person therefore they could not grant Ms. Michell Zambrano .an interview in zoom. Ravenswood will disintegrate in about 10 years if things keep going this way. Ms. Wilson will be gone, Yeahhhh!, we will not experience or witness more of her verbal abuse to Ms. Gaona and other teachers who came to complain about something going wrong. I am glad we heard her last grumpy opinions and arguments from her. She knew she was not going to win, and that is why she does not run this time. If she did she would have been defeated by so many new applicants just like Marcelino Lopez and Dr. Knight were. Thanks for not running Wilson and Thanks Gaona for always speaking up for justice and fairness, and for not getting contaminated by the corrupted board members. You are so unique.
I just thought that an calling to an election would be the best thing to fix this corrupted process. Why not, who wants to take the lead. Am I the only one who sees something wrong with the appointment of someone who is going through serious sickness? I feel bad for her, but our children do not have to pay for it. Neither they should appoint someone who has a one year old unless, she can guarantee that she has someone to take care of her when she is sick and can put the baby to bed when the board meetings go on untill 12:00 am or pass that.
For those who do not believe that Ms. Latu is sick, go to her Facebook account and can see that Ms. Wilson even made a comment about it when she made it public, wich means that she knew about it, and probably Ms. Pulido knew about it too. I am not sure about Ms. Sobomehin, but perhaps she knew too. It does not make sense why would they appoint her, unless like it was said in the last comment they wanted to grant her a last wish. If that is the reason, I feel better, but our kids will pay for their decision.
One of the removed post was saying to call for an election of something like that. I do things that it is the best thing to do too. If Latu wins she will win the sear for real, and all the other late and on time applicants could apply for the seat. I hope someone starts the calling for an election process. Perhaps some of the readers know how to do it and could advice how to start the process or where to go for help and guidance. Thanks.