Teacher's Union Details HUSD Endorsements
In Which: New bus sensors are coming to Mission Blvd. Lucid plays parking games on a public street. And new information sheds light on HUSD Board dynamics.
News From Around Town
There’s a few things I noticed while walking around that I thought folks should know about. It’s not necessarily the biggest news, but it shows the importance of having shoes on the ground.
Mission Blvd Bus Project
Some AC Transit construction is happening on Mission Blvd for the next month or so. The Mission Boulevard Transit Signal Priority Project is adding additional sensors to traffic signals along Mission to improve bus times. Although the page doesn’t say so, I assume that the system will prioritize signals that busses are approaching so they don’t sit at red lights as often.
It’ll be interesting to see how that affects traffic flow in practice, but keep an eye out along Mission if you’re in a hurry.
Lucid Testing In Live Traffic
A testing vehicle from Lucid, the electric car company hoping to oust Tesla from the top seller position, was seen on Watkins Street in front of City Hall today. They seemed to be testing some kind of automated system for backing out of parking spots and sensors detecting people around the car.
Aside from the driver, at least two other people had a scooter, skateboard, stroller (with fake baby doll inside), and a wheelchair which they were using around the vehicle as it backed out of a parking spot over and over again. Unfortunately for the residents of Hayward this was during the day in an open street, so the two people on foot were constantly dodging vehicle traffic.
I understand using real-world testing data, but it’s unclear if the vehicle had permission to conduct the tests or if, once again, a private company used a public good for private benefit.
The vehicle was registered in California and there was someone in the driver’s seat so it was almost certainly legal. But it inconvenienced everyone on Watkins who didn’t sign up to take part in Lucid’s testing operations.
Further HUSD School Board Analysis
After last week’s post on the HUSD School Board, we received new information that allows for further analysis of the upcoming election. Thanks to an unsolicited message from Trustee April Oquenda, I was able to look in detail at who has officially endorsed Calyn Kelley and what that could mean for November.
First, Some Campaign History
Trustee Sara Prada, as mentioned last week, was the highest vote-getter in 2020 and beat William McGee, who had endorsements from the entire rest of the board and came 5th, and Maria Del Carmen Espinosa, who appears to have ridden some of Reynoso’s popularity to a close 4th place. According to Prada’s campaign finance disclosures, she didn’t do huge fundraising—of the $16,000 raised for her 2020 election, Prada loaned $10,000 to her own campaign. This would be a dangerously small amount for a City Council candidate, but after looking more closely at other campaign finances, HUSD Board elections operate very differently.
April Oquenda raised almost nothing over the course of two campaign seasons—her total expenditures were under $10,000 and the biggest non-monetary contribution was from the Hayward Educator’s Association (HEA) for mailers at over $3,000. Peter Bufete raised under $7,000—and he spent even less. Neither Ken Rawdon nor Joe Ramos had any campaign contributions at all for their 2022 campaigns. Meanwhile, a City Council seat usually needs around $30,000 to be considered viable.
Fundraising clearly doesn’t count for everything—it honestly may not matter at all. I can only assume, then, that endorsements carry a lot more weight.
For the last several years, the Hayward City Council and HEA have endorsed similar candidates, or at least that’s the rumor—it’s difficult to fully verify since campaign websites come and go. Council almost unanimously backed April Oquenda in 2022, Peter Bufete received endorsements from 5 councilmembers in 2020, but only Aisha Wahab endorsed Sara Prada in 2020 and all were endorsed by HEA—Ken Rawdon had no campaign website that I could find.
HEA Endorsements For 2024
Although it was clear that HEA had endorsed Peter Bufete, Austin Bruckner-Carrillo, and Sara Prada there wasn’t a lot of information about why—only rumors. So I reached out to HEA and Zev Kvitky, the Executive Director of HEA, was kind enough to fill me in.
Kvitky provided some important context to the process: the endorsement was decided by a panel of HEA members who used the same questions for each candidate. He said only 4 candidates responded at the time—they did their endorsements early—and HEA committed to endorsing 3 candidates because there are only 3 seats available. They wanted to prioritize those “most aligned” on what challenges educators and students are facing. “We felt that they had a good understanding of the social, political, and economic situations in Hayward,” Kvitky said of their choices.
When asked specifically why Calyn Kelley—the only other candidate to be interviewed—didn’t receive an endorsement, Kvitky debunked the rumor that it had to do with anti-union sentiment. Instead Kelly was “not willing to make a commitment to oppose new charter schools,” Kvitky said. The endorsed candidates had a “commitment to oppose any new charter schools.”
Kelley’s campaign website tells a different story, however. “…I would never approve a new charter to enter the district,” the website reads. It’s possible that Kelley changed his stance after not receiving the HEA endorsement, but it’s impossible to know for sure.
The Establishment Backs Kelley Over Prada
The Hayward City Council and the majority of the HUSD Board of Trustees have backed Calyn Kelley over Sara Prada, however. Prada did not receive endorsements from most members of City Council in 2020 and they’re not likely to change their stance. Kelley has endorsements from everyone on City Council aside from Councilmember George Syrop as well as Trustees Bufete, Rawdon, and Oquenda—many with accompanying photographs at campaign events.
Austin Bruckner-Carrillo has secured endorsements from four City Councilmembers and it’s likely that Peter Bufete will also receive a slate of City Council endorsements, since he has gotten them in the past. The endorsements give credence to the rumor that Kelley was specifically tapped to oust Prada—while also looking like an attempt to trade one Black person for another.
I don’t know details about why Sara Prada has been targeted—it’s clear that the three other Trustees aren’t her allies—but this play is a gamble. Since HUSD is still running at-large elections, a split vote between Prada and Kelley could backfire and allow Ramos to maintain his seat for four more years. But Prada has incumbency, popularity, and name-recognition—the Prada name is also tied to well-loved educator Gloria Prada—so unseating her may be more difficult than it seems.
Show Me What You Got
Politics isn’t for everyone, and I understand that. The Herald has been focusing almost exclusively on politics because that’s what I’m interested in and that’s what I have capacity to cover. But I also know that my most popular article covers an author-event and that there’s a lot of other stuff going on—political and otherwise—that is both interesting and that I have no capacity to cover.
That’s where you come in.
Do you know someone who’s got a story they’re burning to tell? Or who’s connected to the local arts scene? Or who knows what’s going on in the local business community? I want to connect with them. Email me. Hit me up on Instagram. I want to get those stories—stories that matter to Hayward but that I can’t cover—out there. I want to lift up the community’s voice because you all deserve to be heard.
Even just a name and a social handle is enough. I can take care of the rest. I want to grow this thing to be a real community news source, but I need y’all’s help to do it.