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Three new governing board members were elected as Trustees for Areas 1, 3 and 5 to the district governing board, on Nov. 6.

Ballots were cast in a new election that would affect the next four years in the county of Santa Clara for the San Jose/Evergreen Community College District.

Rudy Nasol was elected for Trustee Area 1, Craig Mann was elected for Trustee Area 3, Wendy Ho was elected for Trustee Area 5 and Mayra Cruz was reelected but this time as president of the district board.

“We have been fortunate in this district to have a progressive and engaged, student-oriented set of trustees in the last 10 to 12 years,” said David Yancey, history instructor at San Jose City College. “I am hopeful that these new members have the same priorities and move the district forward in a positive direction.”

Cruz has served as a trustee for this district for four years and is now being elected as president of the district board because of her record of putting education and students’ success as the priority.

“I am committed to education,” said Cruz, who won the election with the 71.42 percent of the votes, according to smartvoter.org.

“Helping students is Mayra’s priority,” said Yancey, who is also the President of the American Federation of Teachers 6157. “She is focused on the impact the decisions will have on students.”

Cruz also works as a faculty member at the Child Development and Education Department for De Anza College.

“I know how life for students at community college is,” Cruz said. “I live the life of a faculty member at De Anza College, and I talk to students every day.”

Cruz and the trustees are expected to deal with some challenges as part of the district board.

The budget the trustees adopt annually is defined by their priorities and according to the services and programs they want to provide to students.

“Revenue from the state has been declining, but since the passage of Proposition 30, the decline is stopping,” Yancey said.

Cruz believes working collaboratively with the community is the first step in the search of finding ways to deal with financial stability and pursue and secure new revenue streams.

“We live in a very rich county that offers many possibilities,” Cruz said. “Why not consider these possibilities that the county provides to obtain income and economic resources that can help us help students?”

Ho, elected for Trustee Area 5, said she would like to encourage the colleges to aggressively pursue grant opportunities to enhance the district’s existing resources.

For Yancey, this is being the worst time for the budget. He assures making good decisions and establishing the right priorities can solve the dilemma.

The district board can either focus on spending the money to help support students, or adopt a conservative perspective and decide to save and have a big reserve in case the economy sinks sometime in the future, Yancey said.

From Yancey’s perspective, the district is going too far by adopting an extremely conservative attitude, having enough money in reserve to double the minimum that the state requires.

“The district has a 12 percent reserve when the state requires a minimum of five percent,” Yancey said. “I think they have more money in reserve than they need, and it hurts our ability to serve students.”

Money and students’ success are linked together.

“The district must have a balanced budget, without deficit spending and with the appropriate reserves,” said Mann, who was reelected two times at the East Side Union High School District Board of Trustees after having an impressing track record of actions oriented to students.

“I have led initiatives such as increasing the number of high quality charter schools, securing a building for the county’s alternative education students, reforming district leadership and balancing a $275 million budget,” Mann said.

Cruz said under her government, the district will evaluate and analyze where the money is going and what the outcomes are, to make use of the funds in the most effective way possible, focusing on what needs improvement, what needs to be cut or what needs to disappear according to how much these programs support students’ success.

“Thanks to Proposition 30, there is more money than what was estimated for the operating budget,” Cruz said. “However, I think the district board should work on achieving long-term financial stability and solve the actual structural deficiency, and that is what we are going to work on together with the chancellor and all the representatives groups.”

Nasol, elected for Trustee Area 1, also sees the budget as the biggest challenge since Proposition 13 passed in 1978, which no longer adequately funded public education in California and forced schools to adopt budget cutbacks as the norm.

“The recent voter-passed Proposition 30 is only a stop-gap remedy and not a permanent fix,” Nasol said. “We are not out of the hole yet.”

To address the financial challenges, Nasol is looking forward to supporting the district’s Education Foundation in fundraising effort and consider a parcel tax initiative at the local level, he wrote in an email.

Nasol also plans to work toward full accreditation for both colleges and institute policies and procedures to avoid the mistakes of the past.

“As a trustee, I want to make sure students at both campuses get the best educational opportunities, which will be reflected in our budget priorities as well as the educational policies that we adopt,” Nasol said.

Ho said developing relationships and partnerships with industry is crucial in order to help students achieve their educational goals.

“We have partnerships with companies that provide internship and other professional development opportunities for our students, but I would like to see more of those partnerships evolve into teaching fellowship opportunities for industry leaders so that students are better prepared for the workforce,” said Ho, who grew up in San Jose and is a former student of both Evergreen Valley and San Jose City Colleges.

Cruz said she will ensure the district achieves the highest accreditation standards.

“I am looking forward to working together with all the members of the board in adopting a policy oriented to reach the highest levels in terms of institutional effectiveness, while making sure to have financial stability,” Cruz said.

With students as her priority, Cruz said she wants San Jose’s institutions to grow, develop and become the best institutions in the county.

Ho also has institutional effectiveness as her priority and she is looking forward to maximize tax payer investment, according to votewendyho2012.com.

“The center of our lives is the academic success of each student,” Cruz said. “The dialogue and all our decisions at the board will be based on achieving students’ success.”