Voters have until Tuesday, Nov. 5 to make their decisions for the general election. NSPR has been interviewing candidates vying for seats on the Chico Unified School Board. In Trustee Area 3, Michele Cooper is running against Teisha Hase. She spoke with NSPR’s Ken Devol about her background and how she would address some of the issues facing the school board if elected.
This interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.
Tell us more about your background and why you are running for this position.
Basically, I have been attending school board meetings for the last two years. I've only missed a couple. [I’ve] been there, checking everything out, learning a lot about the school district.
I have a background in human resources, and I think that gives me the ability to kind of sit back and observe the situation and see what's going on and see where there are problems that need solutions, and I hope to bring solutions to the table.
What do you see as the number one problem confronting Chico schools?
Well, to narrow it down to one problem is a little difficult, of course. Safety is the number one priority for me, for these school kids and our staff.
Currently, they are implementing new safety protocols and putting fences around these buildings as they're improving them and creating check-ins that are wonderful solutions. However, I believe there's still more that can be done.
We don't have any school resource officers at this time on any campuses due to funding, so I would definitely like to dig into the budget and see where we can grab funding to get those officers back on campus.
You alluded to the possibility that there are other problems. What might some of those be?
Well, I think there's some budgeting issues that need to be looked at. You know, obviously, we've got a bond on the ballot, and I think that brings up a lot of questions for people as to where money is going. So I'm definitely looking forward to researching that and digging into the budget more.
Also, there are policies that have created quite a stir in our district, and I think that the board does have oversight, but they need to do a little bit more digging into the policies we currently have and see where we can make changes that make our district more transparent to our families.
Is there a particular policy that you're concerned about?
I think this really began with the parent secrecy policy that came up, but I think that there's also other policies that need to be looked at.
We recently had the cell phone policy, and although it was a great policy, it did need to be tweaked a little bit and really enforced. Sometimes we have these great policies, but when they don't get enforced, they don't really mean anything. So there's just things like that that need a little bit more oversight.
Assuming you were elected to the board, what do you think you could contribute in order to find solutions?
One of the big problems right now the schools are facing – I've had some conversations with administration – and our special education department is severely lacking qualified staff. They have a hard time hiring and retaining in that area, and I believe with my experience in hiring that I could bring some great ideas and hopefully solutions to that problem, so that the department is not understaffed, and those kids are getting the quality education they deserve.
How much is staffing a consequence of a lack of funding?
I don't believe that is the case at this point. Now, are there incentives that could be offered, are there [are] other things that we could be bringing to the table, probably. But I think the problem is, we don't have as many people going into education as we used to.
Why should people vote for you?
Why should people vote for me? I think that what I bring to the table that's a little bit different is my involvement in the community. I'm a Chico native, born and raised. My children are the fifth generation of our family here. I'm married to a special education teacher, so that gives me some insight there. And I'm involved in my community.
I spent over 15 years involved with 4-H and FFA (Future Farmers of America). Our family helped start the Chico Grange in 2022. So we've had a lot of involvement in the community over the years. And you know, like I said, I've been attending school board meetings, I've been involved in a lot of these processes that have been going on, and I'm not afraid to speak up when things aren't right.
What else do you think listeners should know?
Well, I think that they should know that I'm committed to this job, I'm committed to this community, and I will do what it takes to fight for our kids.
