Trustee, Trustee Area D — San Diego Unified School District

RICHARD BARRERA

Trustee, San Diego Unified School Board, District D

RECOMMENDED FOR ENDORSEMENT by METRO-WEST AREA

For thirty years Richard Barrera has been at the forefront of community and labor organizing in San Diego. He led the contract campaign to secure raises and health and dental care for 20,000 homecare workers with UDW, led the organizing drive to unionize 500 service workers at Tri City hospital with SEIU, helped elect worker friendly boards at Tri City and Palomar/Pomerado healthcare districts with CNA, led the campaigns to win strong contracts for workers at Albertsons/Ralph’s, Food 4 Less, Rite Aid, CVS, Gelson’s, Viejas Casino, Central Meat, and Airport gift shops, and the first ever union contract for cannabis workers at MedMen, with UFCW, and led the effort to raise the minimum wage and provide five annual sick days for over 200,000 workers in the City of SD as Secretary-Treasurer of the Labor Council.

As District D’s Trustee on the San Diego Unified School Board, Richard Barrera has spent more than a decade fighting for the students, staff, and communities of the San Diego Unified School District, against the state austerity budgets that have starved our schools for the last forty years and the wealthy corporate elites who have tried to privatize our education system by convincing us that public schools are failing and that teachers and educators are to blame. Richard has pushed back against these assaults with a pro-educator, pro-student, pro-community and pro-union agenda that has achieved clear and inspiring success, including:

• the highest graduation rate in the history of the District and the highest of any large District in California, after raising graduation standards for all students:
• the highest college readiness rate of any large District in California, including 120% increases in college readiness among Latinx and African American students;
• national recognition for closing the achievement and opportunity gaps from Stanford Professor Linda Darling Hammond, President of the State Board of Education and Chair of President Obama's education transition team;
• consistent rankings at the top of literacy, math, science and social science among large California districts;
• recognition as the only large urban district in the country to make significant progress for all students at all grade levels on the "Nation's Report Card."

PRO-STUDENT, PRO-EQUITY

Richard has led the District in this period of historic academic achievement by listening to and partnering with students, educators, parents and the community, including leading efforts to:

• protect immigrant students and families from the Trump Administration by declaring our schools off limits to ICE and Border Patrol, by joining the ACLU lawsuit defending sanctuary jurisdictions, and by prohibiting contractors bidding on a border wall from doing business with the District, in response to the voice of students, families and community organizations;
• establish breakthrough anti-bullying campaigns that celebrate student diversity, in response to advocacy from LGBTQIA, Muslim and Immigrant students;
• triple the number of dual immersion bilingual schools in the District, and increase by 500% the number of students graduating with the seal of biliteracy, in response to advocacy from parents and bilingual educators;
• make SD Unified the first school district in San Diego County to establish Ethnic Studies as a graduation requirement, in response to advocacy by a diverse community coalition of students, parents and educators;
• protect and restore the District's science education program, in response to advocacy from San Diego's science community;
• protect and restore the District's visual and performing arts program, in response to advocacy from the music and arts community;
• remove rifle ranges from high school JROTC campuses, in response to student and community advocacy;
• establish the UC/CSU A-G curriculum as the requirement for graduation, in response to advocacy from students and civil rights leaders;
• author the District's Climate Bill of Rights, which establishes breakthrough policies in Restorative Justice and Trauma Informed Education, in partnership with the Mid City Community Action Network.

PRO-TEACHER, PRO-STAFF

Richard has led the effort to honor, rather than vilify, District teachers and employees by achieving historic contract settlements that:

• Have raised salaries across the board by nearly 22% since 2013;
• Have protected fully paid family health care;
• Have established the lowest class size and student to staff ratios of any District in the County;
• Have developed a breakthrough teacher evaluation process focused on growth and collaboration rather than corporate style rewards and punishment;
• Have insourced, rather than outsourced jobs;
• Have established groundbreaking efforts to recruit and retain diverse teachers and staff, including the establishment of a career pathway for District students who want to become educators; all while Richard has been willing to stand up to poorly performing charter schools and corporate charter growth.

PRO-LABOR

Richard has ensured investments in education benefit working San Diegans more broadly by:

• Leading the campaign to pass 3 bond measures, bringing $8.5 billion of investment into our schools, and creating to date over 23,000 well-paying union jobs, including over 10,000 jobs in the highest poverty neighborhoods in San Diego;
• Leading the effort to establish the first Project Labor Agreement in San Diego County, allowing school facilities to be built by union construction workers with middle class wages, family health care and secure pensions.

PRO-ENVIRONMENT

Richard has helped to put San Diego Unified at the forefront of sustainability and environmental justice by:

• Leading the development of a San Diego Unified Climate Action Plan, on pace to achieve zero net carbon emissions by 2030, in response to advocacy from the environmental community;
• Partnering with the Ocean Discovery Institute to build a state of the art science education center in City Heights;
• Leading the development of over 80 community parks  - soon to be over 120 - through joint use agreements with the City of San Diego;
• Partnering with CALPIRG to set the highest standards for safe drinking water in the nation, 5 times safer than bottled water and 15 times safer than EPA standards, then went to the voters to secure funding for implementation.

FISCALLY RESPONSIBLE

Richard has proven that partnering with educators and investing in students can be done while being fiscally responsible. Under Richard's stewardship, the District has:

• Balanced its budget every year, maintaining the highest possible financial certification by the County Office of Education;
• Maintained the highest credit rating possible for a School District in the United States;
• Received perfect audits on the management of its Bond program.
• Saved the taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars by bringing in construction projects on time and under budget, while saving on utility costs through the expansion of the District's solar and sustainable energy programs.

AGAINST SPECIAL INTERESTS

Richard has moved progressive change in the District by standing up to powerful special interests, including:

• The NRA over removing rifle ranges from campuses;
• The religious right over sex ed;
• The Chamber of Commerce, San Diego County Taxpayers Association, San Diego County Republican Party and Lincoln Club by passing bond measures with PLAs;
• The Union Tribune Editorial Page, local billionaires, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Arne Duncan over rejecting union-busting corporate education reform, and instead established the District's philosophy of Community Based reform;
• The local billionaire class by defeating their attempt to take over the school board with appointed, rather than elected positions;
• The local Trump right by standing up against bullying of Muslim students.

RECOGNIZED BY OUR COMMUNITY

The community has recognized Richard for his efforts, by awarding him:

• The San Diego County Democratic Party Legislator of the Year and Chair's Awards;
• The Building Trades Council Labor Leader of the Year Award;
• The Harvey Milk Leadership Award of San Diego County:
• The Association of Raza Educators Promoting Biliteracy Award.
• The San Diego Education Association's Executive Director's Award;
• The Center on Policy Initiative's Visionary Leadership Award;
• The California Association of International Baccalaureate Education Legislative Champion of the Year Award;

ENDORSED BY THE SAN DIEGO EDUCATION ASSOCIATION

Richard is honored to be endorsed by the over 6,000 classroom teachers, nurses and counselors represented by the San Diego Education Association, as he continues the fight for public schools worthy of our kids' futures.