Merced school board Area 2 seat to remain vacant after trustee’s resignation. Who is running?

Jessee Espinosa’s recent resignation as the Area 2 representative on the Merced City School District board has thrown the race wide open.

The seat will remain vacant until the November election.

Audrea Tuhn, 30, and Tsia Xiong, 54, are the two candidates listed on the ballot.

Xiong is the director of programs at the Hlub Hmong Center, a resource center that advocates for Merced’s Hmong community. Tuhn has worked in property management for the past six years at River Drive Properties, a third-party agency that works with local renters and real estate companies.

The Merced City School District (MCSD) oversees local K-8 school operations, while Merced Union High School District (MUHSD) manages high school education in the district. MCSD is responsible for 11,400 students enrolled across 14 elementary schools and a preschool program.

Tuhn and Tsia both have children in the district.

The Merced Sun-Star asked both candidates questions about their goals and stances on the challenges affecting the school district. Here is a summary of their responses:

Q: Why are you running to be on the Merced City School District board?

“I have two kids that are in MCSD. One’s just starting, he’s in preschool, and one’s in first grade, Tuhn, a Merced native, said. “The school board’s main role is to be there to ensure that the community feels like they have a voice. They’re there to relay what the community needs, what they want, as far as you know, the changes and the things that are being decided for the schools.“

She said she wants to empower other parents by serving as their voice and breaking down the information they need to make informed decisions about their school district

Xiong said he is running to ensure accountability within the district’s ranks, and to promote student needs. He believes the best approach to these goals is to use the district’s budget effectively, and make information about how that money is spent accessible to the public.

“I know that I can make a difference as a 11/2 generation refugee coming from Laos,” Xiong said. “I’ve seen a lot of our refugee students over the years [who] have not been given the best education possible. I think [the] school district has more money than they know what to do with. But at the same time, our students aren’t really doing very well, so there’s no accountability, there’s no transparency.”

He said he believes his accumulated years of experience volunteering for various educational committees provide him with an understanding of district culture.

“I have the experience. I’ve volunteered with the school district for over 12 years. I sat on every committee, you name it: school site council, ELAC, DELAC, DAC,” Xiong said. “I also served as interim board trustee. I was appointed for about six or seven months, and then I also sat on the bond oversight committee for six years.”

Q: With Measure O on the November ballot, what are the biggest needs and improvements MCSD should prioritize?

Xiong said he would use school bond funding to modernize campus facilities. Water bottle filling stations, for example, would provide active children with cold water and reduce waste from plastic bottles, he said.

He said he would also prioritize creating more parking lots. “Number two is making sure that our parking lots are expanding,” Xiong said. Parking should not be an issue for parents when they drop their children off before and after school, he said, and added that there are not enough parking spaces available to meet the demand for them during back-to-school nights.“[I]f parents come in, we should have plenty [of] parking lots to support everyone.”

Tuhn said the measure should address the “night and day” differences between schools in the north and south sides of the city. She said that a high standard of learning is impossible to achieve without investment in the physical infrastructure of children’s learning institutions.

“When Rivera Elementary School was built, you saw teachers flock to that school because it was a new building with brand new equipment,” she said. “It was a nice school. And you saw parents fighting for their kids to go to that school because it was a nice school. I think we need to have that everywhere. We shouldn’t have to fight to have that nicety that should be offered at every single campus…[T]he equity is not there, and that needs to be what the focus is.”

Q. What are the biggest issues and challenges facing the district?

Tuhn said the biggest challenge in the district is a divided board. Disagreements within rank affect the members’ ability to decide in the best interest of the students, she said.

“I think it’s very obvious that right now, when you look at the board, it’s not cohesive leadership. And I think that in itself, is one of the biggest things, because…when everybody’s looking at your team, and this team of five can’t even agree on the simplest thing, and it becomes more of like a personal thing than a decision, that’s going to affect the district. It’s hard for people to have trust in the district and accept that we’re going to be okay, or we’re going to pull out of it, or we’re going to see this shining, you know, trophy at the end of the tunnel, or whatever it may be.”

Xiong said there are three key challenges facing the district: students who are not reading at grade level, achievement gaps among students whose English is their second language, and parents who don’t feel involved.

“[A] majority of the kids in [the] classroom aren’t doing very well at the grade level, and that’s a huge concern.” He said giving teachers the flexibility to teach how they believe is most effective will support student engagement.

And he said that scheduling committee meetings outside of business hours for working parents and developing a budget for unionized teachers will give both groups what they need to collaborate.

Q. With the hiring of Julianna Stocking, why is it important for the district to have stable leadership moving forward after the recent turnover in superintendents?

Xiong said he supports a strong superintendent, but an even stronger school community. Relationships build trust, which the board is currently missing from the public, he said. The work that the superintendent, trustees, teachers, staff and parents do together is important, he said.

“[H]ow do we work together in solidarity, so that at the end of the day, we all win? Right?”

Tuhn said she is happy about Stocking’s position as the new district’s superintendent, who she described as inspirational.

“If you listen to that woman speak, you’ll feel like you can do anything afterwards, like she just has that leadership quality of she’ll walk in a room and she will make you feel like the most important person and inspire you to go out and change the world. And I think right now, that’s what we need. I know it took a long time to get here, and I know that’s why the board was very selective.”

This story was originally published October 7, 2024 at 5:56 PM.