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Griselda Delgado seat #1

Griselda Delgado

  • Griselda Delgado was elected to the governing board in 2014 to a two-year term to replace a trustee who had resigned.
  • She is the principal of Hilltop Middle School.
  • A doctoral candidate in Educational Leadership at SDSU, she earned an MA and a BA in English, both from SDSU.

Griselda Delgado was elected in 2012 to serve a two-year term for Seat #1 after Trustee William Stewart abruptly resigned. She ran a campaign that prioritized transparency and accountability, student-centered programs and job training. She is running unopposed in 2016.

“Transparency comes with trust,” she told The Sun during her 2012 campaign. “You set policy to make sure that every information, every piece of data is exposed.”

Her 2012 governing board campaign was endorsed by Chula Vista Mayor Mary Casillas Salas and Trustees Tim Nader, Nora Vargas and Norma Hernandez.

Delgado supported placing Proposition Z, the $400 million construction bond, on the November 8 ballot.

She has also spoken out about campus safety, sexual assault and student access to classes and programs.

An advocate of life-long learning, Delgado is the final phase of an Ed.D. program in K-12 Educational Leadership at SDSU.

Roberto Alcantar

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Roberto Alcantar seat #3

  • Roberto Alcantar represents California State Senator Marty Block as District Director in California’s 39th Senate District.
  • Alcantar served as campaign manager for Marty Block For State Senate in 2012.
  • Alcantar worked for the U.S. State Department as Assistant Diplomat to Australia from 2008-09.
  • Alcantar was a student counselor at Ashford University from 2010-2011.

Starting from a young age, Roberto Alcantar said he has held Southwestern College dearly close to his heart.

“I remember being a five-year-old kid and growing up with a single mother who was raising three of us by herself,” he said. “We were living in San Ysidro in a one-bedroom apartment. She saw a flyer for Southwestern College. With her very limited English skills, (she) decided to apply and enroll and became a student there.”

Alcantar said SWC changed his family’s trajectory and he hopes to bring altering moments to others.

“This campus is very personal to me,” he said. “It changed my life. It changed the life of my family. It gave us the opportunities we were seeking and I want to make sure we continue to provide those kind of opportunities to students throughout the South Bay. We hear a lot about wanting to bring a new university to the South Bay and wanting to bring an educational complex. This is it. This is the jewel that we have in the South Bay.”

Alcantar said fixing accreditation issues requires a very exact process.

“We don’t just take these recommendations and say ‘We’ll fix them,’” he said. “We have to keep working with the accreditation (commission) and (ask) ‘Are we on the right path?’ The last thing we want is to put in all these resources, time and effort in fixing a problem and then having them last minute say ‘Oh, you did it wrong. Too bad.’ We can’t play around with accreditation. We need to make sure we’re in constant communication.”

Alcantar said he supports Proposition Z because it is in the best interest of SWC students.

“You look at communities like Chula Vista, San Ysidro, National City and we’ve been forgotten for many years,” he said. “I’ve been to places in Chula Vista where roads aren’t even paved and to me, that seems absurd. The kind of culture that’s been brought up in our community is that we’ll fix it later. I would make sure to work with the board to make sure students are part of the process. If our committee is willing to say ‘Yes, I’m willing to raise my own taxes in order to provide better buildings for the students,’ then we need to do that. We deserve the best.”

If elected, Alcantar said he would make sure SWC remains accessible and affordable for everyone involved with the campus.

“I want to make sure that our faculty and classified employees are taken care of,” he said. “The only reason this campus continues to be recognized for its achievements is because of (faculty and classified employees). I want to make sure this campus is a campus where anybody feels comfortable, safe and protected, regardless of race, religion, gender or identity. I want to make sure we fight together to make sure this campus is safe for anyone. That’s important to ensure those students or faculty or classified members can do a great job and continue to keep this campus thriving.”

Lander Iriarte

Lander Iriarte seat #3

  • Lander Iriarte has a background in financial services. He earned a Bachelor’s degree in sociology from Princeton University and a MBA from Crummer Graduate School of Business at Rollins College in Florida.
  • He is 34 years old and a Chula Vista native.
  • A long-time Chula Vista resident, he attended Chula Vista Hills Elementary, Bonita Vista Middle and Bonita Vista High School.

Iriarte said he intends to focus on the students first and fund education essentials.

“My goal is to serve the educational needs of the South Bay community,” he said. “I want to make sure every student here can reach his or her goal, (whether it is) transfer, technical degree or basic skills.”

Iriarte said he supports project labor agreements that require bond funds to give local jobs to local people.

“I’m not a big fan of contracting out services,” he said. “As we’re already aware many of our blue-collar jobs have been shipped out to foreign countries.”

Iriarte said he supports Proposition Z.

“I think it is needed to finish what was started (by Proposition R),” he said. “I also like the fact that it would help involve the community with the new facilities, like the Wellness and Aquatics complex.”

Campus safety is a priority, he said.

“I want people to feel safe here. It’s an environment for learning and I do take that (sexual assault) very seriously. People don’t feel like they are being heard and I take that very seriously. We’re here to learn.”

SWC’s next president should reflect community values, he said.

“I’ve seen a lot of presidents come through here. There has been a lot of turnover. What I would do is bring in someone that brings people together, get things done and a strong leader that has a clear vision and someone that is going to stay here for a long time.”

Racial tension is a concern, he said.

“There is a lot of division. One way to fix that for me would be to make people proud of the school they go to, have Southwestern College Pride. You’re not an African-American or Hispanic, you are a Southwestern College student. You are a South Bay Community member. Make sure we all here in the community and we want to do our best.”

William “Bud” McLeroy

William “Bud” McLeroy seat #3

  • William “Bud” McLeroy is a retired U.S. Army Sergeant Major and a retired firefighter.
  • McLeroy ran for a governing board seat in 2010 and 2012.
  • In 2014, McLeroy ran for a seat on the Sweetwater Union High School District school board.

William McLeroy failed to respond to The Sun’s request for an interview.

McLeroy said he has been a South Bay resident since 1960 and attended classes in Southwestern College and cares deeply for his community.

“No matter who you are, your income level, you can always count on Southwestern to give you the chance to better yourself,” he said in a 2012 interview with The Sun. “If I didn’t care, I wouldn’t be a fireman. I wouldn’t be in the military. I want to help this community and this school as much as I can. It comes from the bottom of my heart.”

McLeroy said it is not enough to squeeze by accreditation. He said he has experience dealing with accreditation issues.

“Being a board member, you are a leader,” he said in the 2012 interview. “We need to get away from the corruption part and actually get back into the education part. People won’t remember us for the education, they will remember us for corruption. Part of changing that is changing the people that are in power. We just need to make a clean break. We need to build our reputation up.”

McLeroy said whoever is elected needs to understand the education system and how to balance the budget.

“Two years ago when I sat down in debates, I said it’s going to get worse before it gets better,” he said in the 2012 interview. “Now we are at the governor’s bill that says we have to pay taxes. If you look at all the bills that have wanted to raise taxes, people say no. The governor passed a budget stating that this bill would pass. That was wrong. I was able to raise the GPA and lower the cost of business.”

McLeroy’s top three priorities if elected are fiscal responsibilities, education, and bringing together local businesses and students.

“I intend to make Southwestern College a premier school system that will be the model for other colleges as the standard for a good, solid education,” he wrote in his candidate profile on Voter’s Edge. “The parents and students of Southwestern College deserve a board that is open and honest.”

Casey Tanaka

Casey Tanaka seat #3

  • Casey Tanaka is completing his second term as Mayor of Coronado.
  • Originally from Hawaii, he has been a Coronado resident since 1983.
  • Since 2002 Tanaka has served on the Coronado City Council.
  • He is a history teacher at Coronado High School.

Casey Tanaka said his experience as an educator puts the importance of Southwestern College into a special context.

“The fact that I’ve been teaching at the high school level for 18 years gives me a perspective of how important it is for young adults to have an opportunity to move ahead through their college education,” he said. “It’s vital that institutions like Southwestern College exist to enable that sort of upward mobility.”

Tanaka said he would like to increase student involvement in college matters.

“I’m not entirely convinced students are involved in terms of how administration asks them for opinions or how they gather the insight,” he said.

Tanaka said he is lukewarm on Proposition Z.

“I’m not entirely convinced that the relationship between the electorate and the community college is strong enough,” he said. “I think I’m still trying to assess whether or not the Southwestern Community College District has earned that much faith in order to have that bond measure pass. I’m leaning towards supporting it because I feel a number of your buildings need remodeling or being knocked down and replaced.”

Student input should also play a role in the hiring of the new president, said Tanaka. He also said that whoever comes in should be experienced.

“Ideally, you’re looking for a candidate pool where candidates have done the same job somewhere else,” he said. “Sometimes someone fits that profile because they left their other job in a negative way so you have to be savvy enough to tell if that person is applying because they want to move up to the position and not down. You want someone who has done this before and is choosing to switch jobs for a positive reason not a negative one.”

Tanaka said the new president should also be ready to focus on the accreditation issues facing the school and foster a better environment for the future.

“You need to make sure enough resources are for the people involved handling the accreditation so that they don’t feel overwhelmed,” he said. “Then I think deeper down, underneath the accreditation issue, there is probably a morale issue and a need for stronger communications and better relationships between the administration and the faculty. This isn’t the first time there’s been an accreditation issue. It’s a very thankless job, so the people who are tasked with accreditation need to feel supported.”

Tanaka also said campus safety would be a priority.

“If I’m elected I’m going to spend time evaluation the major system of the college and of the ones I would be evaluating, of course, is your campus police,” he said. “I can tell you anecdotally every time I’ve visited your campus I’ve seen a police presence so I don’t feel anecdotally that you have a staffing problem. It seems like there would be roughly the right number of officers on duty. The first system I’d evaluate would be your staff to make sure that anecdotal conclusion is correct or accurate. Next you have to evaluate what training those officers received, to see what was the training and how often.”

Lei-Chala Wilson

Lei-Chala Wilson seat #3

  • Lei-Chala Wilson worked as a San Diego public defender for more than 24 years.
  • Wilson is former president of the San Diego branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.
  • Wilson is a former President of the National Council of Negro Women.
  • Wilson served as Director for Region IX of the National Bar Association.

Attorney Lei-Chala Wilson is eager to bring a lawyer’s perspective to the governing board.

“I spent 24 years as a deputy public defender, which means I know how to advocate, litigate,” she said. “It doesn’t matter to me whether I’m popular or not. I’m going to fight the issues.”

Wilson was endorsed by the CSEA classified employees union. She said Southwestern College is her community and that she is familiar with the school.

“I promised myself when I got out of law school and came back, I’d serve my community,” she said. “This is my community and I’m here to serve.”

Wilson said a balanced budget and better community outreach are two of her main priorities.

“I’ve been a community organizer, I put together community forums. This college belongs to the community. If more people were aware of what’s going on in this college, we would have more support. An informed community is a better community. An informed college is a better college. We also need to work on accreditation. I know that’s a concern right now. Let’s make sure once it’s fixed, that this is the last time.”

Campus safety can be solved by having better communication with campus police, Wilson said.

“I saw the blue (poles),” she said. “That doesn’t make me feel safe. If someone is attacking me, what am I going to do pushing a button? I was sort of surprised (SWC) has this problem. (SWC doesn’t) have the dorms. It’s a little bit different. People are starting to become more aware of what’s going on. It’s starting to make the news more.”

Wilson said Proposition Z should be passed because college building projects cannot afford to be delayed any longer due to inflation.

“With me being a taxpayer, I think (the funds) are necessary,” she said. “If you don’t do it now, it’s just going to cost money later. (Prop Z) is going to have my vote.”

Wilson said a college is a people business and caring for employees is essential.

“I have a civil rights background,” she said. “I always believe that civil rights and unions are one. Without the unions, we wouldn’t have a middle class. When they first did the project labor agreement out here in Southwestern, I was contacted when I was the president of the NAACP. Without hesitation, I wrote a letter in support for the PLA agreement. Every time any of the unions called on me, it got done. If it’s right, I’ll do it. Without hesitation, I did.”