Despite much of my cynicism, there are some bright spots in Anaheim. Local elementary school educator Lori Lambaren-Hernandez was named as one of ‘Orange County’s Teachers of the Year’ for 2010. Another point of pride resides in Dr. Jose F. Moreno’s tenure as President of the Anaheim City School Board. I first met Dr. Moreno 5 years ago as an educational program known as the Puente Project was under attack in the city by assistant superintendent Tracy Brennan. He fought alongside Puente parents to ensure that the college tracking program was preserved for Latinos students who comprise a sizable majority of the student body population. Since that time, Dr. Moreno has gone on to be elected to the Anaheim City School Board (2006) and is seeking to return to the post.
Unlike others who use elections to educational boards as political springboards, Dr. Moreno actually has a background in education – and it’s an impressive one. He just recently became the new chair of Cal State Long Beach’s Chicano & Latino Studies Department. The campus recently held an Ethnic Studies Awareness Week which highlighted the importance of such classes especially given the backdrop of the ban on the program that operated in the Tuscon, Arizona school district. He also spoke recently at a community forum in support of the DREAM Act in Orange County. On the Anaheim City School Board, Moreno stresses a number of key points in seeking reelection: Achievement-Centered Budgets, School Performance & Evaluation, English Learner Achievement, College & Career Pathways, Parent Engagement, Community Partnerships. His bio page also reveals that he and his wife are “founding parents of the only Dual Language Immersion Program in Anaheim at Adelaide Price Elementary School.”
Dual language immersion and culturally responsive education: Dr. Moreno gets it in a city that needs both. Anaheim, whose civic governance doesn’t always reflect the needs of large segments of the community, will be well served to return him to the Anaheim City School Board.
To learn more about the candidate, you can visit his website at:
http://moreno4schools.com/index.html
Interesting…. What changed in three years? (Besides some members of Los Amigos opining that Gustavo might not be the ideal speaker for a conference on the Latino education gap?)