Bee endorsement: These candidates outshine opponents in Modesto City Schools races

Modesto City Schools are best served by retaining incumbent board members Charlene West and Cindy Marks.

Experience isn’t everything. But it should and does count for something in Modesto’s largest and most complex school district.

West has represented Area 5 (east of downtown Modesto) for five years. Her dedication to Modesto schools is beyond question, and her knowledge of district workings is impressive.

Marks, elected in 1997, may be the longest-serving public office holder in these parts, and probably ranks up there in all of California. Think of it: not one student in 30,000 currently attending 33 Modesto City Schools has ever been served by a school board that did not include Marks.

“I believe experience and knowledge are vital,” Marks said in a debate before The Modesto Bee Editorial Board.

She’s right.

With a bond for high school facilities — Measure L — going before voters on the same November ballot, now is not the time to hand the reins to angry, less-informed candidates with far less experience.

The campaigning skills of Jolene Daly, who is challenging West in Area 5, are evident, and the therapist’s familiarity with mental health issues would be an asset. But this is her third back-to-back-to-back campaign, having failed in runs for Congress (2021) and for California Senate (spring 2022). A record of continuously running for various levels of government over two years suggests interest in a title more than commitment to local schools.

If voters approve Measure L, the school board ultimately will be responsible for how bond money is used. Ideally, it should be in the hands of those who actually want it and have fought for it — not those who look at the measure with suspicion, like Daly, who seems more eager to appeal to conservative voters than in taking a stand for students.

Marks’ challenger in Area 1 (northwest Modesto and Salida), Mari Magana, may be applauded for seeking a step up from her current post as a school board member in the much smaller Salida district, where she has served two years. She appears genuinely motivated, having worked 22 years in non-certified Modesto City Schools jobs.

But her answers to some debate questions (“It will be interesting to find out what’s going on behind closed doors,” she said, for example) suggest only a cursory appreciation for demands of the much larger district’s highest office. Her derision of the district’s commendable efforts to achieve greater equity among students — she called the initiative “malarkey” — is troubling.

It’s telling that Magana and Daly linked arms, figuratively, in the debate in defiance of the much more experienced incumbents, who have done nothing to diminish the trust voters have placed in them over a combined 30 years.

Marks’ lengthy list of involvement in myriad committees and associations is dizzying, and is evidence of deep-seated devotion.

The record of West, a career school counselor before she retired, and her mastery of multifaceted challenges facing the district, is similar. “I have to make hard decisions, but I always focus on what’s best for the kids,” she said in the debate.

Voters may remove long-serving office holders when trust is lost. Nothing in the performance of Marks or West suggests anything of the sort.

The Bee recommends Cindy Marks and Charlene West, respectively in areas 1 and 5, for the board of Modesto City Schools.

This story was originally published September 28, 2022 at 4:00 AM.