Since last year’s contentious standoff between the Santa Barbara Unified School District (SBUSD) and the Santa Barbara Teachers’ Association (SBTA), three seats on the Santa Barbara Unified School Board opened up for election on November 5, 2024. The school board members serve staggered four year terms for five Trustee Areas across the district, and this year Trustee Areas 2, 3, and 5 were up for election.

School board members are responsible for approving the budget, district policy making, approving curriculum, and hiring the superintendent. The school board also negotiates with the teachers’ union on issues regarding salary, staff layoffs, and district spending. This caused the leadership of the Santa Barbara school board to come into question many times over the past year as the tension between the union and the district came to a head and the possibility of a teacher strike was imminent. Any area that sends students to a school in SBUSD has a school board member, and the school board members are voted on by the people who live in that area. The three candidates who will be filling the school board seats since the election are Sunita Beall for Area 2, Bill Banning for Area 3, and Celeste Kafri for Area 5. 

For the first time in many years, the teachers’ union was actively involved in the school board elections through endorsement of two candidates, Celeste Kafri and Chris Wichowski. “We were really looking to get some more school board members who would be more willing to listen to teachers and build more relationships with teachers,” Union Bargaining Chair, Ashley Cornelius, said of the union’s decision to endorse Kafri and Wichowski. Any candidate who wants the union’s endorsement must come in for a meeting with the union’s political action committee and get approval from different groups within the union. Kafri has children in schools in Goleta and has experience working with the Goleta school board, while Wichowski is a former special education teacher who was running for Trustee Area 3. 

The election of three new school board members has many impacts on the continued negotiations between SBTA and SBUSD, as well as the schools across the district. While Cornelius is appreciative of Kafri’s win, she worries that with only one endorsed seat on the board, her willingness to work with the union will be an outlier. “We have Celeste (Kafri), who has proven that she’s ready to be receptive to things that we (the union) are sharing with her, but it would be nice to have two because then there’s a little more strength…We are hopeful that with Celeste’s presence on there, maybe some of the other board members will feel more comfortable questioning things too so it won’t be as one-sided as it’s been.”

Since the salary increases that were negotiated last year by the union and SBUSD, one of the union’s biggest goals this year is to look at the budget for the district and see where there is room for increased spending on programs and teacher salaries, rather than keeping the money received in an emergency fund. “We definitely want some board members who will fight for a budget that is realistic with the money coming in and focused on keeping teachers here and keeping programs that are serving our students,” Cornelius shared. While there may not be immediately visible impacts from the results of the school board elections, in the long term the union hopes to work with the board on creating new initiatives for policies across SBUSD schools, especially centered on combating racism. “Hopefully we’ll be able to build relationships with not just Celeste, but some of the other board members, and figure out a good way for us to have positive interactions with them,” Cornelius said of the next steps between the union and the board. 

Area 2 school board member, Sunita Beall, has practiced as a physician in Santa Barbara for the past 25 years, and has two children who graduated from SBUSD schools. “Running for school board has been simply another facet of a life in which I use my education as well as my skills to advocate for change in my community,” Beall said of her motivations to run for the position. Some of her goals while in office are to improve literacy and math proficiency and to improve student engagement, especially at the secondary school level. “The most ambitious goal that I have is to improve customer service within the school district, which means the district, the teachers, the staff and the community all work together to create the best possible experience for students. The difficult part of this student-centered goal is that there needs to be good communication as well as financial transparency between all these people,” Beall continued. “In short, the board needs to be more proactive, and have clear expectations of the district to improve the experience for students, teachers and staff.” So far, Beall has seen positive changes within the district as curriculum and professional learning become more aligned within schools, as well as better awareness of mental health issues and discussion of diversity and racial issues. Speaking on the tensions between the district and the teachers’ union last year, Beall said, “There clearly was a breakdown in communication between the district and the teachers’ union. From my point of view, the board should have more direct interactions with the teachers, so that there is more impact on board decisions.” School board member for Area 5, Celeste Kafri, has an MBA and a Certificate in Education Finance, and decided to run for school board after co-founding a group that advocates for science-based reading instruction in the Goleta Union School District. “I do not think the district’s plans for the future are clear. I think we need to better understand and communicate where we are, where we want to be, and how we will get there,” Kafri said of the union’s biggest issues. In order to address this, Kafri hopes to assist the board in setting three to five SMART goals for the district for the next five years, and then spend 50% of every board meeting ensuring progress is made on these goals. “I’d like to see our strategy and budget more closely aligned. I’d also like our budget to be written in an easily understandable way, so everyone understands what we are trying to accomplish through our spending. We also need to increase the opportunities for students, teachers, and community members to give feedback and share their expertise with the district.” Area 3 Board Member Bill Banning retired as the Superintendent of the Goleta Union School District in 2017, and his goals as a school board member include narrowing student achievement gaps and promoting student equity, enhancing teacher and staff retention by addressing compensation and working conditions, improving communication, and strengthening community engagement. “One area for growth is improving communication and trust between the district, families, and staff,” Banning said of the changes he hopes to see in the district. “Overall our district is doing lots of things very well. However, there’s always room for improvement, particularly in addressing equity and ensuring all students have access to quality programs and resources.” Banning is hopeful that he can create a “collaborative and respectful relationship between the board and the union,” while also facing the financial challenges of the district. “We need to focus on teacher retention by addressing concerns about compensation and collaborative relations during negotiations with our two labor unions,” Banning said. 

With the arrival of three new members to the Santa Barbara Unified School Board, time will tell what changes will be made to schools across the district. Whether it is a more friendly relationship between SBUSD and SBTA, or a continuation of the contentious negotiations of last year, the future of SBUSD will be determined by these newly elected board members. 

[Santa Barbara Unified School District offices, where board meetings take place. Image Credit: Mary Moses]