Good evening board members and superintendent Bruce Harter. My name is Raquel Antolin and I am a West Contra Costa Alum, as well as a Wave Maker Alum, and a member of Students for Education Reform since 2014.

I’m here to share concerns over the lack of transparency in the Superintendent search. I’ve been on the district website to check for updates and your last post is from April 5th. It is 2 sentences and all it says is “we are advertising the job description.”

A few weeks ago I attended an event where GO West Contra Costa shared the results of their own community survey around the superintendent search. I applaud them for their continued outreach to the community, for reporting back on their findings, for making the information digestible, and their survey results accessible to students, parents and community members like myself.

How is it possible that a local non-profit organization with only 3 staff members was able to create a survey that received more input from the community than the very district leading the search? Watching GO West Contra Costa lead their community engagement work, I realized that when organization is truly interested in being inclusive of the entire community, you are able to see the effort and the results. I wish the district would take note of this.

Now I turn to you and the work Leadership Associates is doing. What were the results of your three community forums and online survey? How did the community’s input get implemented in the search?  You need to over-communicate with your constituents in matters that are as important as the superintendent search. You need to provide the transparency that we’re asking for because your silence reinforces our lack of trust. I urge you to update us in the most transparent way and win back the trust of your community.

When you look at SFER members remember this -- we are the students that once sat in your broken schools but we grew up. We are all adults in college, we are Richmond residents voting for you to represent us, and do what is best for our cousins, nephews, neighbors, and for all the children of our West Contra Costa community. We are your constituents.