Alum Rock board must rebuild trust

Disregarding dozens of vocal community members asking them to wait, the Alum Rock School District board Monday night chose a trustee to fill the vacancy left by Darcie Green’s recent appointment to the county school board.

This means the Alum Rock board will have three new members when newly elected trustee Karen Martinez is sworn in next month, two of whom are appointed rather than elected. It’s going to be hard to rebuild trust and convince parents that educational needs will trump personal politics from now on.

Community members jammed the board room, hoping to delay the appointment until Martinez is seated next month. The process was rushed — Green resigned Nov. 7 — and Martinez should have been able to help choose the fifth member, not trustee Esau Herrera, whom Martinez ousted in the Nov. 6 election.

The atmosphere at the meeting only compounded the distrust: The selection process was confusing to some, and there was no Spanish- language translation, which usually is provided.

The board chose Andrea Flores Shelton, who is generally well- regarded. We’re hopeful that, like Green, she will be reform- minded and collegial.

But she is the second unelected member of this five- person board, along with Andres Quintero, who was seated in September — and both have worked for county Supervisor George Shirakawa, whose spending of public money is under investigation. Quintero still is a policy aide, and Flores Shelton until recently was his deputy chief of staff.

Because of such similar political ties, and because they were not chosen by voters, they have an even greater obligation than usual to listen to parents and voters. It was not a good sign that Quintero ignored the public’s wishes to delay the vote Monday night. But there is a way to begin building trust. The pair can get behind a call for board reforms that parents and advocates have proposed.

The ideas come from a who’s who of San Jose and East Side leaders, including former Supervisor Blanca Alvarado, two former Alum Rock trustees, former San Jose mayor Susan Hammer, Somos Mayfair director Jaime Alvarado and leaders from the group People Acting in Community Together.

Among their proposals: trustee term limits, prohibiting the kind of rushed postelection appointment the board made Monday, setting policies for making future appointments and requiring time for public comment during all meetings.

These are minimum standards for transparent governance; it’s stunning that they’re not already in place. Flores Shelton and Quintero should commit to getting them passed as a down payment on their bid for community trust.

The two appointed members of the board can begin by getting behind a call for board reforms that parents and advocates have proposed.