Four seats on the board of trustees are on the ballot this election season, area 5 which has the incumbent Dr. Armando Valerio running unopposed and area 6 which is a race between Catalina Piña and Rosario Patrick. While one of them might not be a particularly close race they will both certainly have a big impact on the future of Delta College.
“What makes us unique, compared to other areas, we’re considered Bay Area now and that poses a problem now because a lot of our student’s parents are Bay Area and that means a lot of travel,” said Piña, one of the candidates for Area 6, regarding what unique problems were facing Area 6. “There should be an extension of Delta in Tracy, It’s a population of 10,000.”
Piña, who currently teaches high school spanish for Tracy Unified School District , said her experience had prepared her to serve as a trustee.
“I’ve been in education for 24 years, my doctorate is in education leadership, and I teach at the high school level,” said Piña. “I worked at Cal State Fullerton, I was on several advisory boards for the local community colleges.”
The decision to run is the “next step.”
“Those experiences are what planted the seed so to speak,” Piña said. “I love what I do, it’s very fulfilling … but Ii have this need to do more,”
Patrick, a self described IT architect is the other candidate running for Area 6, was unable to be reached for comment.
“I like emphasizing education because it is the key to success and has taken many men and women to greater heights in life,” reads Patrick’s website, https://rosario4trustees.com. “My 28-year career in IT Architect has prepared me with the work ethic and knowledge to help prepare our youth for a bright future.”
Patrick’s appeal to voters emphasizes the importance of education and his own ties to it.
“Education makes a difference in fragile or forced rebuilding communities and can help with emotional growth, aiding people in overcoming trauma due to entrenched discrimination, conflict, war, or natural disasters by providing stability and hope, “the website reads as well as explaining his ties to education. “My parents were teachers, so they instilled in me the value of education and the necessity of protecting our educational system for our community’s future at a young age.”
For Area 5, the issue of representation was also important.
“It’s been a huge learning experience for me,” said Valerio regarding his temporary appointment to the board of trustees in May of this year after former trustee Kathy Garcia vacated her seat on the board. “It’s like learning a new language”
“When I was 14, I went to Delta College with my mom, she was taking night classes,” said Valerio. “I would go study in the Goleman Library, I got my AA here and took a few adult learning courses.”
Valerio is running for the Area 5 seat in this year’s election. . While the outcome of this race may be a foregone conclusion, he is still eager to discuss what he brings to the table.
“I want to have representation for my area,” he said, adding that he believes a huge issue facing Area 5, which serves Lockeford and Clay in eastern San Joaquin County as well as Calaveras County, is the sheer amount of distance the students have to travel. A student from Calaveras could expect an hour and a half drive into the main campus according to google maps. “The distance, there is nothing close to Calaveras county, that was something that was supposed to be addressed with Measure L,” he said.
