The Wild Card Race: School Board Area 1

Voters have little to go on in the Area 1 School Board Race. But our kids education is at stake

In this edition: Three Candidates vie for the Area 1 seat on the School District Board of Trustees. Each presents a very different choice for Elk Grove Unified and the future of our children's education. Today we have two interviews with prospective leaders of our School Board.

Meet the Candidates – Susan Parvis and James Latoa, on today's RadioElkGrove. Let's look into it together.

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Three candidates for Schoolboard Area 1 are running for a chance to help lead our school district, none of them well known to the general public: Sudan Parvis, James Latoa, and Tony Perez.

Despite forums and articles, it's hard to get to who a person is without talking to them. Local candidates are not nessecarily good at getting their message to the voters. So RadioElkGrove reached out to all the candidates in the Area 1 race to give them a chance to tell their story.

Two of the three candidates responded. After numerous emails and phone calls, candidate Tony Perez never responded to us for an interview.

We did hear back from the other candidates, Susan Parvis and James Latoa. We start with Susan Parvis.

  

Susan Parvis could be called a tradidional candidate, with 15 years of service to the district. She has been Chairperson on a number of School District committees since 1997, including Categorical Advisory, the now discontinued GATE, School Site, and currently serves as Vice-Chair on the Financial Advisory Committee. Parvis started her campaign with the endorsement of currently retiring trustee, William Lugg.

Parvis holds a Bachelor's in Business Administration, and is mother to one child at Florin High School.

We asked Parvis why she's running:

[Listen to Parvis Interview]

Ms. Parvis doesn't have a public website, but you can get more details at her “Smart Voter” information page. Her email contact is there as well.

This is RadioElkGrove

James Latoa is a relative unknown to the general public, though he has served in local Area 1schools. Latoa has served on his School Site Council, and as Chairman of the English Language Learner committee at Florin High School and James Rutter Middle School.

Latoa is of Hawaiian heritage, and proudly wears a lei of Kukui Nut prayer beads at public events. He is a member of various Pacific Islander organizations in the area. Latoa founded and works as the Director of “Feeding Sacramento” a local non-profit organization.

Mr. Latoa claims no special knowledge of the workings of the school district beyond his service metioned. He says quite openly that he had no idea what was going on with labor in the district before he saw a protest 9 months ago. Latoa says he only went to a board meeting because Area 1 Trustee William Lugg, soon to retire from service, didn't answer Latoa's emails.

Is nine months long enough to birth a viable School Board member? We talked to Mr. Latoa to find out. Mr. Latoa was very open and sincere in answering our questions. He spoke to us from Los Angeles, where he was attending an important family function.

[Listen to Latoa Interview]

You can learn more about James Latoa on his public website, linked on our story page (Click Here). Or you can get more details at his “Smart Voter” information page. Latoa's phone number is there, as well as email.

This is RadioElkGrove.