Two candidates running for vacant seat on Merced City School board. What you need to know

Two candidates are competing to fill the vacant seat for Area 3 of the Merced City School District Board in an all-mail ballot election set for Aug. 31.

Adam Cox, former president of the Greater Merced Chamber of Commerce, and Allen Brooks, NAACP Merced branch president, are running to fill the vacant seat.

Area 3 includes the central part of the city and downtown and includes schools, such as Hoover Middle School, Charles Wright Elementary School, and Don Stowell Elementary School.

The seat was left vacant after Cox resigned last year.

Merced residents in Area 3 can begin voting by mail starting Aug. 2 and ending Aug. 31.

Residents can also go to the Registrar of Voters in person to drop off their ballots at 2222 M Street in Merced, which is open from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. on weekdays.

The write-in candidate period ends at 5 p.m. on Tuesday, Aug. 17.

Adam Cox

A 33-year-old Merced native, Cox attended school in Merced, attending Sheey Elementary, Rivera Middle School and graduated from Merced High, and has a political science degree from Arizona State.

Cox served as a media and communications coordinator and president for the Greater Merced Chamber of Commerce and executive director of the Builders’ Exchange of Merced and Mariposa.

Now, he is a management analyst for Merced County, and previously served as a school board member for the Merced City School District from 2009 until December of 2020, and then resigned.

Cox represented Area 3 on the board, and resigned because he applied for a job in the Merced City School District and thought it would be a conflict of interest to have the job while serving as a school board member. Cox ended up not filling the position he applied for, and decided to rerun for his former seat on the board.

“Over a decade on the board, I’ve really been able to educate myself on the intricacies of financing and running public education in California,” Cox said. “With that history (provides) being able to know which questions to ask, which is a good hallmark of a good elected leader.”

Cox said he wants to run for the school board with the intent of providing more accountability and transparency, especially when it comes to letting parents and the community know what the district intends to do with taxpayer money.

“I think culture changes when we go back to transparency and accountability,” Cox said, if we keep reminding the public at every board meeting, what our goals are, how we’re measuring them, what are our interventions, (and) how are we spending $120, $130 million dollars a year.”

Aside from accountability and transparency, another issue the district and board needs to address is the low test scores, Cox said.

According to reports discussed in previous board meetings, Cox said three out of 10 children in the district are proficient readers. He hopes to fix that issue by focusing and investing in resources so every child can become better readers. Another goal is to address any learning gaps as a result of the pandemic.

“We were already struggling with literacy pre-pandemic,” he said. “We now have to support and nurse an entire generation of children from over a year of less than ideal learning,” he said.

As a potential board member, Cox said, he would also work with the board make sure parents understand the goals and intentions of the board and make sure performance indicators — student achievement, teacher satisfaction, attendance rates, and more — are “clear and concise, easily understood, easily articulated, and easily measured.”

“I really don’t think we make things easy and quick enough for the average parent to really understand, so that they can even care,” Cox said of the goals and performance indicators. “I want the board to keep focusing on that at every single board of education meeting.”

“I’d like people to know I want to be seen as trustworthy, I want people to know they can depend on me, and that’s why I want everything to be out in the open,” he added. “Out of one of five board members, I’ll do the best that I can to improve our school district.”

Allen Brooks

Brooks is a local real estate agent and president of the NAACP Branch in Merced.

Brooks wants to run because he wants to work with the board to give children an equitable education and to be a voice for the people.

“I want our education system to be able to give them the opportunity to go anywhere they possibly want to and compete with their counterparts,” Brooks said.

“I’m very in tune with the community. I think it’s one of the reasons I want to run, I want to make sure that the community and the teachers and students have a voice.”

There’s some things in education that we need to fix,” Brooks said.

One issue he said he hopes to address are the low literacy rates and making sure all children feel welcome.

“One thing as a district that we have to focus on is to improve our literacy numbers, because we already know that for black and brown kids they’re reading at a far lower rate, and we have to change that,” he said.

“I’ve been hearing a lot about diversity and inclusion, but that doesn’t matter if a child doesn’t belong. We need to have environments where children are learning and feel part of the system,” he said.

As a potential board member, Brooks wants to get input from parents, teachers, and residents about issues they need to address.

His platform centers on youth engagement, economic growth and development, and community awareness, something he hopes to bring to the board.

Youth engagement would mean working with the district to instill mentorship programs and more approaches to hands-on learning.

Economic development and growth would mean teaching students real-world applications such as how to manage money and open up a bank account.

Community awareness is making sure the board not only has good relationships with parents, but for the schools and parents to work together on children’s education.

“The school, parents and community need to have a better relationship,” he said of community understanding. “Nine out of 10 times the only time a parent gets a call from the school is when it’s negative. We have to trade. Schools and parents should be working together.

“It takes a village to raise children. We as a community have to work together to move our children’s education forward in a positive direction.”

This story was originally published July 21, 2021 at 5:00 AM.