Members explain goals, criticism of CAC

Local resident Baldo Salcido remembers one day in 2013 being perplexed hearing that there were no Hispanic or Latino principals in the Los Banos Unified School District after he asked an administrative assistant at the district office.

The local business owner and Vietnam veteran has lived in Los Banos for 16 years. He went to the district office that day because he noticed that his son’s teachers lacked diversity when compared to other school districts he visited through his work.

“I asked how many (Hispanic or Latino) teachers they have, and it was a few,” Salcido said.

Salcido didn’t know that his inquiry would lead him to co-found a cohesive group of local professionals which, today, wields considerable power in Los Banos, and now faces a test in November to see if it can keep that power during a corruption scandal involving one of its main supporters: trustee Tommy Jones.

When Salcido was in the district office that day, the assistant said another person asked her the same questions the day before.

That person was Julian Mancias, who had been a social justice advocate and is a math teacher at Los Banos High School.

Salcido got in touch with Mancias and they started talking about some of the issues facing Los Banos, including representation and low school test scores.

Soon, they networked and joined with Ray Martinez, a retired fire captain; longtime resident Gary Munoz; former Santa Nella County Water District Board member and San Jose employee Patricia Ramos Anderson; and several others.

Within months, the group of Los Banos residents formed a close-knit grassroots organization. In May 2014, Mancias christened the group “Community Advocacy Coalition.”

CAC isn’t a formally organized or recognized group. Instead, members regularly meet at Salcido’s home and discuss issues they feel need to be addressed in the community. And when it comes time for elections, they stay under the $2,000 campaign fundraising and spending limit, meaning they don’t have to register as an organization.

“There’s no official status,” Salcido said. “We don’t have any dues, fees. We don’t collect or take any money.”

Salcido said about a dozen members attend regularly, but many others often participate in CAC by volunteering and canvassing neighborhoods.

CAC’s name and acronym is familiar, and in some circles, infamous, in Los Banos.

The group has had success in pushing for change to the Los Banos City Council and school board.

But recently, CAC’s influence in school district policy has rubbed trustees, former trustees, teachers and other members of the public the wrong way.

In an interview with the Los Banos Enterprise, CAC members described the group as a network of individuals advocating for underrepresented and disadvantaged people and students in Los Banos.

“It’s all about representation,” Mancias said.

Some of the group’s key issues relating to the city and school district include drugs in school, jobs, public safety and gang issues, homelessness and providing more activities for children.

“We’ve gone to (the City Council) and tried to address a number of issues,” Ramos Anderson said. But CAC felt the City Council members, at the time, seemed to discount the group’s concerns.

Martinez remembered a specific moment when he was organizing a march to battle homelessness in 2013.

“I called on many organizations, the school district, city businesses and city leadership,” Martinez said, noting he sent letters of introduction, emails, snail mail and voicemails. “But only one person (from the City Council) responded – that was the mayor. To me, that was a red flag.”

Salcido said the lack of response CAC was getting led to its members going through alternate channels, including pursuing legal pressure.

CAC threatened legal action against the City Council in 2014 if it didn’t change the at-large voting system in accordance with the 2001 California Voting Rights Act.

Its influence helped the passage of Measure S for the city of Los Banos later that year, changing the at-large voting system for council seats to a representative districting model. The change is taking effect this year for two of the seats up for election in November.

“Now, we’re not just falling on deaf ears,” Ramos Anderson said.

CAC recently has shifted its focus to the school district to address the school’s low test scores.

According to 2016 state test results, 49 percent of Los Banos district students are at or above grade level in reading and writing, and 39 percent for math. District officials noted a small improvement from 2015, but CAC officials say the numbers remain abysmal.

“All that we’ve ever said was, ‘Folks, let’s own them and together figure it out,’ ” Salcido said. “But that’s where the resistance came.”

CAC has had backing on the board from trustees Tommy Jones, Carole Duffy and Marlene Smith. The group is supporting Jones and Duffy’s re-election bids.

With the August recall election victory springing Martinez to the board and Munoz running against trustee Dominic Falasco in November, the group could soon have the support of five out of seven trustees.

But CAC has received heavy pushback.

Trustees Dennis Areias and Anthony Parreira have publicly questioned if CAC is gaining a dangerous influence on the board. The teachers union has also been wary of CAC, with President Jason Walsh announcing the union is endorsing the candidates running against Jones, Duffy and Munoz.

Opponents have been regular in denouncing CAC’s stance on hiring more Hispanic staff, noting that the district should hire the best people regardless of race.

They have also decried CAC’s continued support of Jones, who is embroiled in an alleged corruption scandal.

CAC members say those opponents are spinning their message, and that CAC is simply endorsing trustees who are listening to them.

“How can a school board member be in opposition with our goals?” Mancias asked. “We acknowledge things, speak with data, information and work with the law. That’s how we have won over other (trustees).”

When it comes to the teachers, Salcido said CAC is disappointed. He said he thinks the union has been influenced by bad information from Areias and others, who have claimed CAC wants more than 75 percent of teachers to be Latino.

“That’s not true at all,” Salcido said. “We just want everybody to abide by the Education Code and Proposition 209,” which prohibits public institutions such as schools from discriminating based on race, sex or ethnicity.

And while Jones is facing serious charges, CAC members are waiting for the legal process to play out before passing judgment on him. They also said the efforts to censure Jones are purely political.

Members said their support for Jones and the other trustees are based on the support they are getting for their initiatives, which include changing the district’s approach to grading and emphasis on improving test scores.

The group has had one voice over the past three years, but it hasn’t come without disagreement.

“We talk about issues and we disagree on things,” Salcido said. “But we made a commitment from Day One that we would all commit to the majority and not let our difference of opinion splinter us.”

And for CAC members, they hope the cohesiveness of the group leads to more change for Los Banos.

This story was originally published October 6, 2016 at 4:48 PM with the headline "Members explain goals, criticism of CAC."