Los Gatos Weekly-Times


Don Wolfe	Jeff Schwartz	Don Allen

Leadership, stadium are top issues for college trustee board hopefuls

By Sarah Lombardo

The race for the West Valley-Mission Community College District Board of Trustees in Trustee Area 1 will be less competitive than originally anticipated. Trustee hopeful and Saratoga resident Ryan Iwanaga announced he's changed his mind about running for one of two open seats.

Citing his own busy schedule and the complexity of some of the district's current issues, Iwanaga said he didn't think it would be fair to his family or the district to run for the board at this time.

"My priority needs to be with my family," he said. "I'm afraid that if I do get elected, I will not be able to provide the kind of time needed for the position."

Because Iwanaga has already filed his candidacy with the Santa Clara Registrar of Voters, his name will still appear on the ballot Nov. 3. But he will not have to compete for voters' attention in the coming weeks.

But other hopefuls--Saratoga Mayor Don Wolfe, Saratoga resident Jeff Schwartz and Los Gatos resident Doug Allen--will.

Wolfe says he thinks the biggest issues facing the district are the expansion and restoration of services and academics, attracting and keeping skilled instructors and preparing students for the Silicon Valley work force.

"We need to update the curriculum so as to meet the changing needs of Silicon Valley," he says.

Wolfe, a past guest lecturer at San Jose State University and UC-Santa Cruz, said he also wants to bring high school seniors back to school by reinstating classes once available to them.

On the district's local hot-button issue--the possible construction of a football stadium at West Valley--Wolfe says that, as a member of the City Council, he has fought to prevent the project through the city's lawsuit against the college, which is accused of trying to build the stadium in violation of residents' desires and its permit with the city.

"Frankly, I think a school that draws as few as 2,000 people per game doesn't need lighting or a speaker system that would be more appropriate for a rock concert than a neighborhood college," he says. "Unlike Mission College, I think [West Valley] should be regarded as more of a community facility."

Schwartz agrees with Wolfe--which doesn't happen very often; the two men are usually at opposing ends of most issues.

As a former trustee and past president of the district's governing board, Schwartz is no stranger to West Valley and has long been active in the fight against a stadium there. But he says the single most important issue facing the district is leadership, citing that Mission College has an acting president and the district has an acting chancellor--neither of whom have applied for their positions permanently. A vote of no confidence against former Chancellor Rose Tseng and the resignation under turmoil of Mission's past two presidents, Schwartz says, point to a need for stability.

"The biggest challenge before the board will be to pick and appoint stable leadership," he says.

The management consultant and founder of Criminal Justice Research says the district must also seek to improve its finances, academic funding and infrastructure, as well as work on improving staff morale and develop an identity.

Leadership and identity also place high on Allen's list of important issues for the district. Appointing a chancellor, he says, would be the first and most important step toward improving the district overall.

Allen is no stran-ger to the college district. His father was a founding board member, and Allen himself ran for the board when he finished law school in the early '80s.

So why the second attempt, and why now? Allen says he saw that two seats were open for Trustee Area 1 and, at the time, only Iwanaga had thrown his hat into the ring. (Wolfe and Schwartz both filed during the nomination extension period.)

"There was a need for someone and so I said, 'Well, I'm here for it,' " he says.

As a football coach at St. Mary's in Los Gatos and a former college athlete himself, Allen said he understands both sides when the subject of a proposed stadium at West Valley is broached.

"I support the college," he says. "But I support it reasonably. I don't want it to be an offense to the neighbors."

Allen says any stadium plan should be one that neighbors agree on, or should be dropped. "If it can't be reconciled with the neighbors, then it can't be," he says. "Then the question is whether you want to shove it down the neighbors' throats. And it is not my desire to force a lot of stuff on the community."

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