Hornet Media and the Fullerton Observer interviewed Leonel Talavera, running for the Fullerton School District Area 5 , at a candidate forum at Fullerton College on Oct. 7, 2024. The Fullerton Observer reached out to all candidates running for this office for the opportunity to take part in a video interview at the forum and interviewed those who responded.
This video series is a joint production of the Fullerton Observer, a volunteer-run community newspaper, and Hornet Media, the student-run media outlets housed in the Fullerton College journalism program.
Interviews have been edited for length and clarity but have not been independently fact-checked.
View live coverage of local elections returns on Nov. 5, 2024, at 7 p.m. on Hornet Media’s YouTube channel @fchornetmedia
Video Transcript:
Hornet Media / Fullerton Observer
What programs and services does the Fullerton school district get right?
Leonel Talavera
Oh my gosh, we get a lot of things right, from STEM to arts to after school programs, with our ENCORE Program to our early drop off releases at some of the school sites and, yeah, and our ACES programs after school. So we do a lot of things, pretty right? Robotics, Festo, performing arts. I mean, the list can go on.
Hornet Media / Fullerton Observer
What would you like to see areas where they can improve?
Leonel Talavera
Definitely, areas to improve is that’s hard, because areas to improve making sure that families and students both have access and knowledge of all these amazing programs that we offer at the Fullerton School District. I think that’s that’s one of the things that that we can probably improve on, but it’s a very low improvement, because we’re an amazing school district.
Hornet Media / Fullerton Observer
what do you see as the biggest barrier to students success right now in the district?
Leonel Talavera
Yeah, right now, I think it’s still the transition out of coming coming out of covid, with the learning loss and some of the challenges that some of our students were facing during the pandemic, I think things are we’re finally seeing some plateau with some of the challenging behaviors that teachers are seeing in the classrooms, but and then also with The learning loss and having access to either internet or additional resources that are impacting both students and parents at home.
Hornet Media / Fullerton Observer
If the California economy continues its current downward trend, what programs or services should Would you consider being cut?
Leonel Talavera
None of the programs I feel should be cut, and I know that’s really challenging, but I think we got to be really creative and innovative in the way that we can keep a lot of those programs going. So I think finding innovative and creative ways to not just, you know, see, see that the California or the state economy going downwards, but making sure that we’re still attracting students and families to our school district, but and then also making sure that they have access to the different programs that we offer at the school district, because we think about the child as a whole Child, and making sure that they can thrive and succeed based on their strengths, gifts and talents.
Hornet Media / Fullerton Observer
If you could magically change one thing in the Fullerton School District, and it can’t be money, what would you change? Yeah,
Leonel Talavera
I think the physical built environment from a lot of our schools, since they are pretty old and aged, parking and traffic flow is a big thing for a lot of parents. So magically, if we can have more land to be able to parents not to feel so stressed and dropping off their kids or picking up their kids from schools at a lot of our school sites because of the landlocked that we have. I think magically, that would be one of the things that I would probably focus on magically with the wand, is add more land around our schools so we can have better traffic flow for student and parent safety.
Hornet Media / Fullerton Observer
Who donated to your campaign and what endorsement Are you the most proud of?
Leonel Talavera
Can I start with the endorsement, please? So with the endorsement, the Fullerton education teachers association, FETA, was the most important endorsement that I received alongside CSEA. Those two endorsements probably mean the most to me because they have the strongest ties to our school district, parents and staff and our kids as well too, who donated to my campaign. Had a lot of local friends and relatives that were that donated to my campaign. Protein lab was one of them, another, some other construction companies through my ties, through Habitat donated to my campaign. I. Alongside feta as well, too, through one of their opportunities, through the ABC fund as well, too. So a lot of people that are near and dear to my heart, no one really outside of my personal circle, donated to my campaign.
Hornet Media / Fullerton Observer
How can we have fair opportunities for everyone to access special need programs in the district, specifically students with mental and physical disability?
Leonel Talavera
I think that’s one of the things that we’re state mandated as a public school district, is to make sure that every kid has access to education, to a public a free public education. And I think it’s finding really creative ways and making sure that we hire the right teachers and staff to be able to support these students with these needs, but, and then also provide the professional development for them to be able to continue growing professionally, but, and then also to be able to have the resources in order to continue growing and thriving within the classroom.
Hornet Media / Fullerton Observer
What kind of help or resources can be provided for immigrant students whose status in the US is still being decided,
Leonel Talavera
I believe that’s not not anything that we question at the Fullerton school district is their immigration status, as long as they’re enrolled through the district and they’re able to access just the same great education as other kids as well too, I think one of the things that we could maybe focus on is making sure that that the families that do come into and live in our communities have the information accessible in in their language, in their native language, which I know we have a strong Korean and Hispanic and Latino population. So making sure that that the information is provided in a in Korean and in Spanish as well too.
Hornet Media / Fullerton Observer
I wanted to go back, and I wanted to talk about some of the different changes that you would make magically.
Leonel Talavera
Okay, so we could talk about, so we talked about parking. I think one of the things that that maybe not so magically, big, big picture stuff. Are we looking big picture stuff? I mean, we’re talking about, you know, building, building performing arts centers, making sure that, you know, we really modernize our schools to kind of really focus on the needs of the times now would be one of the great, great things, also just accessibility to amazing resources that students need in order to thrive in the classroom. When it comes to technology, or even, you know, the day to day stuff, I would think nothing really, I guess, magically stuff. I mean, measure n the bond, I think would be a huge benefit for the district, right? And creating some of that, those opportunities to be able to build, you know, new buildings, modernize stuff in the classrooms, so the teachers have, you know, it makes the teacher’s job a little bit easier if that’s kind of what they need and want. So definitely on on the bond measure, making sure that our school sites look and feel like a second home to our kids. I think that would be kind of one of my magical wands that I would be able to kind of do is making sure that the kids feel like our school site is their second home where they can thrive and learn in a really comfortable environment, because they are spending anywhere from six to seven hours a day at our school sites, awesome, that wasn’t too painful. Not at all those are super easy.