‘Phenomenal’ student board member leaves dais

Diann Kitamura stopped herself mid-sentence. It was the May 26 Santa Rosa City Schools board meeting and she was lauding the work of outgoing student board member and Elsie Allen High School senior Omar Lopez at the start of his final meeting.

Kitamura, being polite, stopped herself from comparing Lopez to the eight previous student board members she has worked with in her tenure as superintendent of the largest school district in Sonoma County.

Kitamura stopped herself from doing that, but I won’t.

I covered education in Sonoma County for years. I attended almost every Santa Rosa City Schools board meeting from mid-2007 to mid- 2014. I returned to regular coverage of the district, their board and those meetings when the pandemic took hold last spring.

With that context, I feel confident saying this: Lopez has been, without question, the most active, engaged and participatory student board member I have ever covered.

And 2020-21 was a school year that desperately needed a student rep like Lopez, a guy who brought the voice and perspective of the district’s more than 15,000 students to a board that wrestled with issues of historic import.

Think about it: He was sworn in via Zoom because his junior year at Elsie Allen was shuttered when the coronavirus pandemic took center stage in March of 2020. He was at the figurative dais in a year in which more than 70,000 school kids across Sonoma County learned from home and the once-in-alifetime return to school debate was fierce and emotional.

On top of that, it was a year in which Santa Rosa City Schools grappled with the

KERRY BENEFIELD

CONTINUED FROM A3

future of the program that puts uniformed police officers on middle and high school campuses. It’s also when district officials began examining the policies — both internal and external —that have created deep racial and socioeconomic inequities in the student body makeup of nearly every school in the district.

This was not a year for the faint of heart. And all of those Wednesday night meetings that very regularly run five, six, seven hours in length, sometimes into the following day, Lopez said he loved every minute of it.

“I am so grateful,” he told board members at his final meeting. “I had so much fun.”

While Kitamura pulled back from comparing Lopez to those who came before him, she didn’t stop herself from showering him with praise in his final meeting.

“Your dedication in staying through meetings until late at night, asking questions, texting me, emailing me, is to be applauded,” she said. “Your questions, your inquiry your curiosity, your problem solving skills as a student representative to the school board is phenomenal. You have set a standard this is going to be so difficult to reach …” Comments from the seven- member board of trustees? See above, rinse and repeat: Area 2 Trustee Jill McCormick “The energy level, the positivity that you brought to one of the hardest periods in public education that I have ever experienced … for you to be here, be informed, stay positive and share with us and make sure that you brought the student voice into all of our conversations this year has just been overwhelming.”

Area 3 Trustee AlegrÍa De La Cruz: “Thank you so much for your voice this year … I cannot wait to see what you do in this world, outside of the Santa Rosa City Schools Board and the system.”

Area 5 Trustee Ed Sheffield: “I so much appreciate your participation from the very beginning … I know you are going to do great things. The sky is the limit for you.”

Area 4 Trustee Omar Medina: “I know that you are going to do amazing things to come. I look forward to seeing all of your success in the future. It’s been an honor serving here with you.”

Area 1 Trustee Ever Flores: “It’s a commitment that is rarely seen in people your age. I just want to say thank you for serving your fellow classmates, and you will be missed.”

Board President Laurie Fong: “We are going to miss you, but we actually know where to find you.”

At that point in the meeting, just an hour into it, the board cleared Lopez to go. He was free. He didn’t have to stay through yet another meeting that went past midnight. But if you have read this far, you probably know what Lopez did: He stayed and contributed throughout the meeting.

Of course he did.

‘We can’t ignore voices’

Stephanie Manieri is the Area 6 Trustee, and she, like Trustee Medina and Lopez, is an Elsie Allen Lobo. Manieri proved an almost immediate mentor to Lopez. She remembers being struck by his intellect and enthusiasm before they even met. Manieri recalled that Lopez reached out to every member of the board before he was even sworn in, introducing himself, asking questions — a bellwether for how he did business the entire year.

This is a guy who could have started his stint when school started in mid-August, but he opted to start attending — and voting — early. Remember, it was the summer of massive local and national protests about civil rights, Black Lives Matter, police use of force and social justice. Lopez wanted in.

“He hit the ground running for sure,” Manieri said. “That is when we started having difficult conversations on our board and he was not afraid of having those conversations.”

“He is just brilliant,” she said.

Some of those early conversations were about the future of uniformed police on the district’s middle and high school campuses. Lopez immediately launched into hours of committee work to address concerns, survey students and staff, and assess the pros and cons of having officers on school grounds.

And of all the people on the dais this year, only Lopez has day-to-day experience with officers on schools grounds. And though his vote is considered for “guidance” only and doesn’t affect the final outcome, his lived experiences carried weight. It was an early indicator of his thoughtful process and perspective, Manieri said, that changed her feelings as the debate unfolded.

“My mind and my heart at the beginning was that we need to completely eliminate this program,” she said of the decades old School Resource Officer program.

“But he made a really big point, a really important point, about community voice. Even though we had been hearing from a lot of the community, we can’t ignore certain voices when we hear others. It was, ’Yes we need to elevate voices but we can’t ignore voices either.’” “It really did kind of change the way that I looked at it,” she said.

Lopez said he, too, felt his position evolve as that discussion played out. He said he was dismayed how tough, but cordial committee work turned sour when Santa Rosa police officers presented their take on the issue before the full board.

“Once we went into the board meeting, I don’t want to say it was hostility, but it was in that ballpark. It was an almost annoyed to be there, annoyed those questions were being asked,” he said. “To me, seeing that type of behavior toward the school board, part of the leadership in that position, it was a bit off-putting. To me, that was what kind of switched it for me.”

While the program was paused but not officially shelved, district officials have not moved to craft a new agreement with the police department and there has been no request to bring the item forward for reconsideration, according to district officials.

Stayed with distance learning

Lopez, like every other person remotely connected with anything related to school this year, struggled with the debate over when and how to return students and staff to campus.

With information and health and safety guidance changing at breakneck speed, kids demonstrably struggling at home, COVID-19 numbers spiking and passions running high, it was often tough to sit in a very public position as those debates were unfolding.

Lopez said he wanted to see the district bring back elementary aged kids sooner than they did. In the end, students began returning April 1.

“I just think, overall, it was the bureaucracy of everything. I think that was the big slowdown,” he said. “I think Diann and the board, all of them, wanted to go back sooner than we did.”

When and how to return middle and high school students, with their more complex schedules and higher rate of COVID-19 transmission, was a tougher call, he said. After all, he didn’t return to the Elsie Allen campus when given the chance. He finished his high school career online.

“For me especially since we went back so late in the year and being a senior, it almost felt like dragging my feet a little bit to go back,” he said.

‘Who knows?’

Lopez is headed to Santa Rosa Junior College in the fall. He’s pondering studying public policy, maybe going to law school. He professes to like the sausage- making part of politics. He actually called those late night/ early morning board meetings “fun.”

He wants to stay in Sonoma County and wants to continue advocating for change. He desires to see where Santa Rosa City Schools goes with its many initiatives for change.

“I am kind of open to everything, anything,” he said. “I kind of want to see what happens.”

But his most remarkable year on the school board has definitely given him the bug.

“I do want to run for office someday, he said. “Maybe I’ll run for school board this upcoming election. Who knows?” You can reach Staff Columnist Kerry Benefield at 707-526-8671 or kerry.benefield@pressdemocrat. com. On Twitter @benefield.