Two Candidates Vie for Open Seat on Martinez Unified School Board
Trustees will interview Brenda Leal and Brittany Ayala in public meeting Monday before voting to fill vacancy representing Area 3; budget cuts, PLA return to board
Retired Martinez Unified School District teacher Brenda Leal and UC Berkeley community college transfer specialist Brittany Ayala are the two candidates for the vacant seat on the Martinez Unified School District Board of Trustees. They will be interviewed by current board members at Monday’s school board meeting, after which the board is expected to vote on an appointment to fill the final two years of the term representing Area 3.
Yazmin Llamas, who was elected to the board in 2022, vacated the seat after she won election to the Contra Costa County Board of Education in November.
Whoever is appointed would be required to run for a full four-year term in 2026 in order to remain on the board.
Leal is a former president of the MUSD teachers union, the Martinez Education Association, who was a regular presence at board meetings during her tenure leading the district’s teachers and represented them in contract negotiations. She taught at John Swett Elementary School from 1988 to 2024.
“I deeply care about our students and our community, which I have demonstrated from the very start of my career in education,” Leal said in her application letter. “I have been dedicated to the education of all students in our district as well as the continuous growth of our schools.”
Leal’s complete application can be found at the following link: https://simbli.eboardsolutions.com/Meetings/Attachment.aspx?S=36030321&AID=1000856&MID=36474
A mother of current district students, Ayala works at UC Berkeley helping students transfer from local community colleges. She has held several college adviser-related positions at the university since 2020, according to her resume.
“As a professional in education, I am equipped with a strong foundation to make informed decisions, utilize data-based evidence, and offer valuable insight on how to strength our relationships with students, educators, staff, parents, community partners and stakeholders,” she wrote in her application letter.
Ayala’s complete application can be found at the following link: https://simbli.eboardsolutions.com/Meetings/Attachment.aspx?S=36030321&AID=1000855&MID=36474
The candidates will be interviewed separately on Monday, and there also will be an opportunity for members of the public to comment. Each candidate will have two minutes to make an opening statement, after which she will be asked five pre-selected questions from the board. The candidates will be given two minutes to answer each question, then provide a two-minute closing statement. Following board discussion of the candidates, a vote is expected.
Before the candidate interviews and appointment, the school board will receive presentations on its special education services and proposed budget cuts for the 2025-26 school year, as it continues to grapple with a structural budget deficit. The district is currently anticipating budget reductions of roughly $1.8 million for the 2024-25 school year, with plans to finalize the cuts by the end of February.
“Unfortunately, we’re in this uncomfortable space, and we’re not going to feel comfortable for a while,” Chief Business Official Andy Cannon said during his budget update at the Jan. 13 school board meeting. “There are going to be a lot of hard decisions that take place.”
The district also is in the latest negotiations over salary and other contract provisions with its employee unions. The teachers union, which has received raises of 10%, 9% and 6% the past three years, is requesting a 2% raise, with the district proposing 0.5%, according to the latest negotiations update on the district website. The same is true with the classified employees union.
The board on Monday also will consider approving a “side letter” to extend its current Project Labor Agreement with local trade unions to cover projects funded with the new construction bond measure passed by voters in November. One wrinkle, however, is that the local carpenters union is no longer affiliated with the Building Trades Council, which negotiated the previously approved PLA in 2018. That split has created complications with the city of Martinez’s efforts to extend a similar PLA, which expired in December, covering its projects.
The school district PLA that was signed in 2018 contained several objectives pertaining to the hiring of local workers for construction and mentorship/career-related activities involving MUSD students.
The district provided the following information in response to a request I submitted on results of the PLA’s objectives and the construction projects that it encompassed.
The PLA set an objective of at least 30% local hires for construction projects, starting with district residents, then city residents, then county residents. None of the three school construction projects for which data were available (Las Juntas, John Swett and Morello Park Elementary Schools) met the 30% objective; Morello Park came closest, with 29.5% of hires living in Contra Costa County, compared with 26.7% for the LJE project and 24.7% for JSE. Martinez resident information was only provided for the LJE and JSE projects; in both cases, the percentage of local hires who were Martinez resident was below 3%.
The district and trade unions agreed on several actions in the PLA to collaborate on a career technical education program for MUSD students. According to the information the district provided, several trade unions have participated in college and career fairs, and Alhambra High students participated in a field trip during the 2023-24 school year through the county’s Office of Education in conjunction with the trade unions. However, the district had no records or data of mentorships of AHS students during the academic year or of the unions providing consultation to or serving as a resource to MUSD career technical education teachers, as was called for in the PLA.
Another provision in the PLA stated that the trade unions would assist the CTE program in identifying contractors that may be interested in providing student internships. According to the district response: “College and Career Specialist at AHS had conversations with local contractors about internships. These were quick conversations and related to individual students.”
The PLA included a provision related to the “Helmets to Hardhats” program to provide opportunities for military veterans to enter the trades and work on district projects. However, the district said no veterans worked on two of the projects (John Swett and Las Juntas), and it had no data on the John Muir project or the recently completed one at Morello Park.
The PLA called on the district and trade unions to collaborate on efforts to increase the number of workers from underrepresented groups (women, minorities and veterans) on district projects. Demographic data were only available for the John Swett and Las Juntas projects. In both projects, over 40% of the workers identified as Hispanic; over 15% white; and less than 2% as African American or female. Between 39% and 41% of the workers on both projects were categorized as “other.”
The John Muir, Las Juntas and John Swett projects all were completed under the budgeted amount approved by the school board. Final numbers on the Morello Park project are still pending but currently are under budget, according to the district.
The John Swett and Las Juntas projects were completed on time. While the Morello Park project was not completed on time, “students and staff were in the building without interruption,” Cannon said, explaining that MPE had “an aggressive timeline with additions and renovations scheduled to be completed before the first day of school.”
One of the chief arguments for PLAs in general is that the utilization of union trade workers tends to result in higher-quality construction with fewer problems. Asked whether the district had any information on how the quality of construction projects completed under the PLA compared with pre-PLA projects, Cannon responded: “I am not able to provide a good comparison between labor and non-labor completed projects. Overall, I can say that the final build quality for our schools is excellent.”
Monday’s regular board meeting begins at 6:30 p.m. The complete school board agenda can be viewed at the following link: https://simbli.eboardsolutions.com/SB_Meetings/ViewMeeting.aspx?S=36030321&MID=36474&Tab=Agenda&enIID=S5MHprLq0moWvgFxNHUnMg%3D%3D
New Community Warning System alerts
In a news release last week, Contra Costa Health announced that residents can now “opt in” to receive text alerts for Level 1 hazardous materials incidents at local industrial facilities, including PBF Energy’s Martinez refinery. Previously, text alerts were only sent for more serious Level 2 and Level 3 incidents.
To sign up to receive the Level 1 alerts, residents can text CCHEALTH to 21423. Residents should also register for general Community Warning System alerts, if they haven’t already, through https://cwsalerts.com/
The full news release can be viewed at www.cchealth.org/Home/Components/News/News/867/414
Point Buckler purchased by John Muir Land Trust
Martinez-based John Muir Land Trust (JMLT) announced last week the purchase of Point Buckler, a 29-acre island located in Suisun Marsh. JMLT called the purchase a milestone in its campaign “to conserve land in an ecosystem that protects clean water and preserves essential habitat for 700 species of California fish and wildlife.”
According to the news release, JMLT purchased island with a credit bid of $3.8 million at a public auction conducted by the Solano County Sheriff’s Office, the result of an enforcement case from a decade ago after the the island’s former owner constructed an unauthorized levee without permits or approvals from the San Francisco Bay Regional Water Quality Control Board and other agencies. JMLT plans to eventually remove the levee and restore the island’s tidal marsh ecosystem.