Welcome our new San Jose board member for District Area 2, a devoted democrat Jose Magaña, who was elected by over 6,500 citizens. District Area 2 is where Lincoln High School is placed. Magaña and his wife and daughter live in the Luna Park neighborhood, close to downtown. His new position as a board member is an important job; we asked Patrick Bernhardt, the current president of the San Jose Teachers Association, what he thinks are some characteristics of a successful board member. He stated that board members should be “strongly connected to their community” and they need to be “invested in the San

Jose Unified schools, or their trustee area.” Jose Magaña stated that he had talked to the principal of Burnett middle school and concluded that San Jose Unified School District needs to change. He believes that some schools do not “have the resources they need to reach their specific goals.”

We asked Jose why he chose to persevere jobs in education and he said it was due to his background. His mom had him when she was 16 years old, and his dad was in and out of jail. He lived in Ceres, California while he was in high school, and attended a local public school. He said: “the one place where I found peace and where I felt successful was at school.” His principal also took part in his success; he checked on Jose daily, from helping him through rough times at home to showing him how to dress for an interview.

Since Magaña was a previous teacher at a charter school, we asked him for his opinion on public schools versus charter schools. He sees some “transparency issues” with charter schools, specifically with their funding. He believes that ‘‘when it comes to student population, we need to treat all our students fairly and making sure we’re serving all our students, and if they’re not, we need to find ways to improve it.” He went on to say “if we’re not doing our job, we’re not serving kids.” He also said “If we look at the laws written for charter schools, the ultimate outcome was collaboration for kids…but I think we’re getting to a point of competition rather than collaboration. ”

From Jose’s views, San Jose Unified School District needs to improve. Due to the “high cost of living”, students and teachers are unable to access the resources they need. Magaña wants “to make sure all kids have the opportunity to go to college”, “all students are prepared as well as families”. When we asked if his old high school was similar to San Jose schools, he agreed and said “size” and “student population”.

Jose Magaña will be sworn into office Thursday, December 13th, 2018 at the District Administration Building at 5:30pm. This session is open to the public and the address is 855 Lenzen Avenue, San Jose CA 95126.