Q&A with Caitlin Garibaldi who will represent Area 5 on the West Contra Costa Unified Schoool District board
What will your top three priorities be as a school board member?
As an incoming board member my top 3 priorities are: fiscal stability without harming classrooms, attracting and retaining great educators, and getting kids back in school, and learning. That means transparency around the budget before decisions are made, not after. It means competitive compensation and working conditions so our teachers stay. And it means tackling absenteeism by removing barriers like transportation and mental health, while investing in early literacy.
What should be done to stabilize the school district’s finances?
We need to reevaluate our high-cost contracts and find ways to reinvest that money directly into our schools while planning for the future. When it’s time to renegotiate contracts we should be ready to come to the table and work out a fair contract. A fair contract shouldn’t be followed by closing schools and laying off educators. We also need to tackle absenteeism and declining enrollment in this district.
What should the school district do about declining enrollment?
Our district has 5,000 fewer students than five years ago, and is expected to lose another 2,000 by 2031. This is mostly because fewer babies are being born, and housing costs are so high that young families can’t afford to move here. We can’t control birth rates or housing prices, but we can control whether families who are here choose to stay in WCCUSD. As a board member I will focus on three things: (1) Keeping the families we have. Families stay when schools are stable, welcoming, and staffed. I will prioritize filling teacher, para, and counselor positions, keeping and expanding programs families love like Transitional Kindergarten and dual language, and making sure every school feels safe and welcoming. (2) Making sure kids can get to school and be counted. Our funding is based on attendance. When kids miss school, we lose the money that pays for staff. I will support reliable transportation, mental health support, and community school resources that help kids attend school every day. (3) Planning with our cities. I will work with our cities to better plan for families, welcome new families, and make sure families know about our great neighborhood schools.
What are your thoughts on the curriculum used and the courses offered in district schools?
I believe our curriculum should be strong on fundamentals, inclusive of all students, and full of opportunities that keep kids excited to come to school. As a parent in this district, I want every child reading well by third grade, and confident in math. That means the board needs to make sure we have a consistent, evidence-based curriculum in reading and math, that teachers have the training and planning time to teach it well, and that we intervene early when students need help.
It also means protecting and expanding the courses families value. In elementary school that is often garden, art, music, library, and science. In middle school that’s engaging electives and extra support so students don’t fall behind. In high school that is fair access to AP, dual language, and career pathways in areas like health, engineering and trades.
Families should be able to understand what is being taught and why. I support clear communication about curriculum, opportunities for family input, and materials that reflect our diverse community. My role as a board member is not to write lessons, but to set high standards, fund teacher training, and make sure every student has both strong basics and real choices that keep them engaged.
What are your thoughts on the use of technology in schools?
I believe that we have leaned too heavily on technology in schools, and we need to pull back and be much more intentional. I believe learning is fundamentally relational. Kids learn best from great teachers and from interacting with each other and other physical materials, not from a screen. Over the last decade we’ve added a lot of devices and platforms quickly, especially during the pandemic, and we never really went back and asked what actually improved learning.
I support technology for very specific, high-value purposes: accessibility tools for students who need them, closing the digital divide so every family has access at home, and real career and digital literacy in upper grades; including how to understand and question AI, not just use it to do the work for them. It’s also extremely important to make sure any ed-tech being used is achieving the results it is meant to achieve. I would always rather invest in lower class sizes, librarians, counselors, and teachers.
What should be done to ensure that our campuses are safe?
Ensuring our campuses are safe starts with listening to the people on them every day: students, teachers, classified staff, and families. We need to have the basics right: facilities that are maintained and updated when necessary, entry systems that work, emergency plans that are current, practiced, and communicated to families in their home language, and adequate staffing for supervision (we are currently losing this last one big time!) I don’t believe in one-size-fits-all solutions. Each campus community is different, so we need district-wide standards with site-level input. We need to track bullying, fights, and absenteeism and use it to target support, not to punish schools.
What should the school board’s relationship be to the superintendent?
The board’s relationship to the superintendent should be that of a board of directors to a CEO. We hire, set goals with, support, and evaluate one employee - the superintendent. We set the vision, policy, and budget priorities based on what our community wants, and ensure accountability. In a district as large and diverse as WCCUSD, the board also has to be the buffer between politics and operations. Our job is to keep the superintendent focused on kids and instruction while we absorb and translate community pressure, ensure equity across our very different school communities, and protect long-term stability.
What will you do to make sure families get accurate and meaningful information about what is happening at the district level and in our schools?
Right now families often get bad information faster than they get good information from the district. That creates fear. I will make sure information beats the rumor mill. That means if there’s a threat, a staffing change, or a budget rumor families hear directly from the district within 24 hours with what we know, what we don’t know, and when we’ll update them. No silence.
I also want a public FAQ after big decisions. When we vote on the budget, we should have a one-page FAQ in all languages that says plainly: “Here’s what we cut, here’s what we protected, and here’s why.”
Accurate information that isn’t translated at the same time is not accurate information. It’s delayed information for many families. My standard is simple: simultaneous translation, simultaneous release. If it’s not ready in every language, it’s not ready.
How will you improve the school district’s process for getting meaningful input?
As a board member I will advocate for co-design, not just comment. The district should bring problems to the community, not just proposed solutions. For major decisions like the LCAP, budget priorities, or school facilities, we should start with listening sessions with our established advisory councils to shape the options before they go to the board. For every input process the board should publish: who participated, what themes we heard, what we changed because of that input, and what we did not change and why. That report should be posted in plain language within 30 days. That’s how you move from performative engagement to partnership. When families see their input actually change a decision, they will keep showing up.
How can community members reach you?
Send me a message through my campaign social media accounts or email me at: Garibaldi.for.school.board@gmail.com