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Editor’s note: A previous version of this article incorrectly described the dismissal of Chloe Gentile-Montgomery. Gentile-Montgomery was a probationary employee and was not reelected for the next school year.
“I don’t want to use the word failure but it is our responsibility to address students with low literacy and math rates,” said Tonga Victoria, an East Palo Alto native and community organizer who hopes to represent East Palo Alto and parts of East Menlo Park on the board of the Sequoia Union High School District.
So far, four people have filed to run for the Area E seat with three qualifying for the ballot. The deadline is Wednesday, Aug. 14, at 5 p.m.
Victoria grew up in East Palo Alto and participated in the Tinsley Voluntary Transfer program, where she went to Oak Knoll Elementary School and Hillview Middle School, despite residing in the Ravenswood City School District. The Tinsley program came about as the result of a lawsuit filed in 1976 by parents in the Ravenswood district and neighboring districts. The suit was settled in 1985 by requiring Peninsula school districts to transfer some minority students from the Ravenswood district into their districts each year. The Peninsula districts include Menlo Park, Las Lomitas, Woodside, Portola Valley, Palo Alto, Belmont-Redwood Shores and San Carlos. She then went to Menlo-Atherton High School.
Running for the Sequoia board is not the first time she sought public office. Two days after graduating from University of Redlands with a degree in race and ethnic studies, she applied to fill a vacant seat on the East Palo Alto City Council. According to her, after she lost, former East Palo Alto Vice Mayor Donna Rutherford told her, “Just serve. Start serving your community and you will end up in places and positions that you never thought were possible.”
“I took that advice and ran with it. I started at One East Palo Alto and then went to College Track where I got more of that academic background for two years, and then I went to Live in Peace for another two years,” Victoria said.
Victoria is the founder of her own communications consulting firm, Swordhouse, which works with nonprofits and local governments. She is also a published author.
A couple of years ago, she connected with incumbent Area E Trustee Shawneece Stevenson who later asked her to consider running for her seat, according to Victoria.
“It’s a big honor for the incumbent to ask you to replace them,” Victoria said.
Stevenson has not officially endorsed Victoria and could not immediately be reached for comment on her support of Victoria.
Victoria’s Positions
Detracking
“I think it’s quite obvious that the most controversial topic before the board is the cut of AS and advanced classes. I’ve seen Students First’s position that detracking limits students and I find it very convincing,” Victoria said.
Editor’s note: On Sept. 9, Victoria told The Almanac that after discussing with stakeholders and attending a candidate information session hosted by the superintendent, she has solidified her position in favor of additional support and advanced classes. “To combine students at a seventh grade level with those that can test at 10th grade, at 11th grade, at the 12th grade, in the same ninth grade class, I don’t think that’s equitable,” she said.
Over the past few years, mainly Woodside and Menlo-Atherton high schools have removed most advanced standing classes for freshmen. The district found that the removal increased the number of socio-economically disadvantaged students meeting graduation and UC admissions requirements.
“It’s honestly disheartening to the communities that I come from that you’re just going to lower the bar,” she said.
“It’s honestly disheartening to the communities that I come from that you’re just going to lower the bar,” she said.
“My question is, how did they reach the decision to remove AS classes? The solution of just taking away classes doesn’t make sense to me. Though, I am open minded, I want to hear how they got to that and if there is anything I am missing.”
Victoria said she has not read the district’s detracking report.
At Ravenswood, data from the 2023 state test results on the CAASPP exam shows that only 10.9% and 4.8% of students were at or above their grade level in English and math, respectively. In contrast, almost 80% of Menlo Park City School District students were at or above their grade level in both subjects. Students in the Las Lomitas School District scored above 80% in both subjects.
“Again, it doesn’t make sense how we got from [very low scores] at the primary school level so we just go ahead and cut off advancement at the secondary level. That throws up a lot of red flags,” Victoria said.
“I can’t go around saying I’m proud to be from EPA if 90% of our kids can’t read and write at grade level. What am I proud of? I can’t be proud to be from EPA if 95% cannot do math at grade level. What is there to be proud about? And I am not the only one with that conviction.”
“I can’t go around saying I’m proud to be from EPA if 90% of our kids can’t read and write at grade level. What am I proud of? I can’t be proud to be from EPA if 95% cannot do math at grade level. What is there to be proud about? And I am not the only one with that conviction.”
“Speaking from my own experience, I am a Tinsley student who tested into AS English as a freshman and then tested out of college English through APs at M-A. But I don’t know if I would’ve been able to do that if I wasn’t a Tinsley student,” she said.
Course content decisions
M-A Ethnic Studies Teacher Chloe Gentile-Montgomery taught a lesson on the Israel-Palestine conflict that some community members felt was antisemitic. Gentile-Montgomery was a probationary employee since she had only been at the district for two years and was not reelected for a third year.
Victoria said she believes that there should be more oversight of teachers’ lessons.
“There needs to be oversight, a process. I don’t think it should just be like the governing board deciding. …But when it comes to what we’re feeding our kids in terms of information and history and all of those things in a classroom setting, I would put parameters in place. I do think that there should be some sort of … committee at the site level, or maybe district level,” she said.
“I graduated with my undergrad degree in race and ethnic studies and when I went back to EPA, I realized that there are some conversations that are best had, maybe only had, in a community setting. When you blend academia and these very contentious topics, such as [the Israel-Palestine conflict] and the Black Lives Matter movement, the safe space of a classroom dissipates,” Victoria said.
“I do not believe that one person, one teacher, should try to take on a topic like this, because you are playing a very, very dangerous game for yourself.”
School resource officers
After two guns were found on Menlo-Atherton’s campus, the school promised a school resource officer would be more present. A school resource officer is a sworn police officer who has a presence on a school campus.
The school signed an agreement with the Atherton Police Department for a fulltime officer to be on campus.
“A SRO wouldn’t be my first choice,” Victoria said. “I want to learn more about why the need for an SRO to meet or solve violence. Is it that we just don’t have the necessary policies and measures in place? We don’t have the correct staff in place?” Victoria said.
“When I went to M-A, we had ‘Uncle Sam,’ who was like an SRO in that he was an adult on campus who was compassionate but also very stern. He made sure everyone was in class and had our best interest at heart.”
Sam Stephens was a campus aid for over 20 years.
Phones in schools
On Aug. 13, Gov. Gavin Newsom sent a letter to California school districts, calling on them to restrict phone usage in classrooms.
“I just finished working with ‘Anamatangi, a summer camp with 30 kids from our area, and we took phones away. I kid you not, everyone had something to do. It was beautiful. And one of the things in our debrief that I told our leaders is that half of the battle was gone because the phones were gone,” Victoria said. “I don’t know what that would look like schoolwide, what that policy would look like. If it doesn’t lead down that road where we’re taking phones and now we’re now suspending and expelling kids for having their phones, then I support it.”
Victoria is a supporter of restorative justice.
“When I say restorative justice, I mean in the sense it is centered on community service, it could be picking up trash or something more. I don’t think of it as just having a conversation and walking away but really plugging them into a program where they can start seeing themselves in the community,” she said.
Chronic absenteeism
The state defines a student who is chronically absent as someone who was absent at least 10% of the school year. Schools in the Bay Area have struggled with high numbers of chronically absent students.
“For four years of my life, I worked with Live in Peace and I dropped kids off at school, not just dropping them at the curb but literally taking them to the classroom. When students see that, they tend to perform better, or at least show up to class and not sleep through class, because there is someone else that is kind of invested in their academic trajectory, academic success with them,” Victoria said.
“My mom did that for me — it was something that I hated in high school but if it wasn’t for her care, I definitely wouldn’t have paid attention to what I needed to in school.”
“I’ve brought up increasing the community presence on campus before and they weren’t sure if it made sense. It is certainly resource intensive. It sucked having to wake up early but it made not just an academic impact, but a social one as well,” Victoria added.
Charter schools
“I am a huge champion and supporter of school choice,” Victoria said. “You should be able to choose, based on merit, where you want to go.”
“Charter schools definitely made sense in the past in East Palo Alto. I think when we look at test scores, we can see Ravenswood is doing severely poorly,” She said. “There is a pipeline problem and there needs to be accountability. This is a crisis. Charter schools need to be part of the conversation, but there are problems we are seeing there as well.”
“It’s definitely a controversial time to join the board,” Victoria said. “No matter what, I am looking forward to trying to address these issues, whether that be on the board or in the community.”
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