Two seats up for election in Long Beach Community College District

Voters will soon decide who gets to oversee the next steps in modeizing Long Beach City College.

Seats in District 2 and District 4 are up for grabs April 12 in the Long Beach Community College District, which is in a season of transition. LBCC is floating an $850 million bond measure for new buildings and improvements. President Eloy Ortiz Oakley is pushing to reduce time-to-graduation. The faculty continues to spar with the administration over programs and pay.

The District 2 race pits Trustee Irma Archuleta against challenger Vivian Williams Malauulu, a part-time joualism professor at LBCC who also is a longshore worker at the Long Beach and Los Angeles ports.

Archuleta, who was appointed to the District 2 trustee seat in 2014 to fill the remaining term of Roberto Uranga, who was elected to the City Council, retired last year from her role as vice president of student affairs at Evergreen Valley College in San Jose.

An advocate for undocumented students, Archuleta said her priorities are student access and college affordability.

“I think that education is our society’s equalizer,” she said. “It levels out the playing field for everyone. ... It’s important that we fight for the system and keep it viable.”

Part of that effort is reaching into underserved communities and helping students understand how to get into college and what financial aid programs are available to them, Archuleta said.

“Particularly in my district, I have a large number of first-generation kids that are going to college, so a parent needs additional information, because they are not familiar with how to get into college,” she said.

Archuleta said one of the goals she’s helped the Board of Trustees accomplish is expanding free tuition for eligible students from one semester to a full year, funded by LBCC’s Foundation.

The program is a part of the Long Beach College Promise, a partnership between LBCC, Cal State Long Beach, the school district and the city, which launched in 2008 to provide a pathway from elementary school to college by better preparing students through services and incentives.

“We’ve been able to do that because we’ve had the support of our foundation, that believes in this goal and goes out and provides the resources so we can do this,” Archuleta said. “What that tells me is we have a lot of folks out there in our community who believe in what we’re doing.”

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Archuleta supports the bond measure and said she had experience working on bond-funded projects at Evergreen Valley College, including working with architects and designers on renovating a student services building.

Malauulu said her coection with the college drove her to vie for a seat on the Board of Trustees.

“I have a deep-rooted interest in seeing the college where I teach succeed,” Malauulu said.

She said student achievement is her top priority, and she sees too many students “falling through the cracks” as they navigate community college and look to transfer to a four-year school.

“I see the frustration of my students, and I think that’s really bad, considering how great Long Beach City College is,” Malauulu said. “I want my students to succeed, so whatever we can do as a college to make sure they have the resources they need, job placement opportunities — it’s all tied up in that.”

Malauulu said she supports the bond measure, and wants LBCC to consider an exemption for senior property owners, because they will also be faced with a 1 percent city sales tax rate increase on the June 7 ballot, and a potential bond measure out of the Long Beach Unified School District in November.

“I think that the college maybe should look for a way of offering some kind of senior exemption, only because older adults are on a fixed income and hitting them with three different measures will be very difficult,” Malauulu said.

Malauulu would have to stop working as an LBCC professor to avoid a conflict of interest.

District 4

In District 4, which includes the west side of the city, longtime trustee and current board President Doug Otto faces challenger Davina Keiser, a teacher in the Long Beach Unified School District since 1979.

The two faced off in 2012, with Otto eaing 66.7 percent of the vote, compared with 33.3 percent for Keiser.

Otto was first elected in 2004. An attoey in private practice in Long Beach, Otto said it may be his final rodeo, but he’s ruing again to see through some of the initiatives begun in the early part of his tenure on the Board of Trustees.

“I want to complete the work that needs to be done so we can engage in 21st century leaing,” Otto said.

Otto said his time on the board has been marked by the establishing of goals, creating a more transparent environment and putting together a facilities master plan. He pointed to the Long Beach College Promise as an example of the work the board has done while he has served as a trustee.

Otto has served as a trustee while LBCC floated two previous bonds, and he said the trustees were able to manage projects even as the state endured the Great Recession and matching funds from Sacramento fell through.

LBCC needs to move ahead with mode facilities that provide jobs skills for a new economy, and Otto said community colleges might be known for easy access, but now must focus on quicker graduation to open more seats to applicants.

“I’ve spent a lot of time getting there; I’m devoted to it, and we’re almost there in terms of what we can do,” Otto said. “The bond measure will finally make us a 21st century college.”

Keiser, a math teacher at Wilson High School, lives in Belmont Heights.

“I am ruing because I believe the focus that the board has taken in the last few years is not serving the entire community,” Keiser said.

She pointed to the cutting of 11 vocational programs in 2013 — such as welding and interior design cut — as an example of the board losing focus.

Keiser said LBCC has become known more as a transfer school to university and needs to shore up its trade programs again.

She supports the bond measure and said her priorities are a balanced budget, student access and equity, and keeping cuts as far from the classroom as possible.

Keiser said her experience as a teacher will help heal what she says is a “less than desirable climate” among the faculty at LBCC. Also, she said, the Board of Trustees has become adversarial.

“I believe that our communication falls short as far as reaching the community members,” Keiser said, adding that she wants to see better use of social media by LBCC leaders. “I think you need to bring the message to the people.”