Hornet Media and the Fullerton Observer interviewed James Cho, running for the Fullerton School District Area 2, 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 do the Fullerton school district get right, and what can the school district improve? 

James Cho 

The first thing that comes to mind when it comes to what Fullerton school district did right is, I remember growing up having to translate a lot of materials into English. I’m a Korean person. My family Korean immigrants and weren’t the best English speakers in the world. So we used to get things in the mail where it would announce certain policy changes certain schedules, my mom would be like, hey, what does this say? And I wasn’t really great at the bilingual thing either, either. And so it was really encouraging to see the school district now translate materials into both Spanish and Korean. I do, however, think that more work can be done to do specific outreach to non English speaking communities. And when I recently met with a group of Korean parents that had a great idea, an idea like, Hey, if you’re a new parent, I don’t know what. I don’t know. It’d be nice if we had something like a boot camp for new parents, especially new parents that weren’t English speakers, prior to the academic year starting so we know what’s up. And I had approached the district with this idea, not my own right, just trying to make the connection. And the reaction I got was pretty dismissive. It almost felt like, Hey, we’re already translating materials. We got a couple work groups. We checked that box. And so I think there’s a lot more work that can be done when it comes to specific outreach to certain communities. 

Hornet Media / Fullerton Observer 

What do you see as the biggest barrier right now to student success for Fullerton children?  

James Cho 

I think the biggest barrier to success for Fullerton children are simply the overcrowded classrooms and the overworked teachers. We hear this term a lot in the business world, which is simply to just do more with less. And that is what we’re asking a lot of Fullerton teachers to do. We’re asking them to buy their own materials. We’re asking them to be not just a teacher of academics, but also a counselor to children. We’re asking them to deal with some of the behavior issues that we’ve seen manifest themselves as we start leaving the pandemic. We’re asking the teachers to do a lot, and we’re not providing them a lot of resources, and it’s troubling to me that the administration seems to not be willing to work as closely with the teachers to find a better way forward, instead of just making them ask or instead of asking them to do more with less. 

Hornet Media / Fullerton Observer 

If California economy continues on the current downturn, what programs or services should be cut first?  

James Cho 

So the I’m going to attack that question a slightly different way, which is California, schools are funded by average daily attendance. In other words, how many kids you got shown to school every day on average? The biggest issue facing our district right now, don’t fall for anything else. The biggest issue facing our school district right now is the fact that attendance has been dropping steadily due to factors beyond the district’s control. District’s control. Our generations are having fewer kids. It’s just becoming more expensive to live in Fullerton, and so there are things that are outside the district’s control that is going to impact the school budget, and we have to be mindful of that now. And so we don’t have to wait for the California economy to crater before we start thinking about ways we can be more lean. And I think one of the things that we can do is to look at the programs that aren’t focused on the core basics of instruction, instruction, and also things that we can do to help families send their kids to school. What I mean by that is the Performance Academy. The Performance Academy is a program where we’ve given away some of our. Or public school land to a private company so they can charge families upwards of $1,000 a month to help them with their athletics. And while I think that’s a great opportunity for a lot of families, what about the families that can’t afford $1,000 a month? This seems unfair, especially since the children whose families could afford $1,000 a month are going to be using that public school property right next to the families, the kids who go blonde, families that couldn’t afford it, and the administrative overhead to administer a program like that is one of the first things I would take a look at. If budget was getting tight, what would you tell me? So I’m going to say class sizes, because with class size, with smaller class sizes, teachers would be able to manage certain problematic behavior more effectively. Perhaps those children would not be acting out in certain ways because they were getting more attention from the teachers. And just generally, academic improve. Academic Performance would improve. So smaller class sizes would be my absolute number one priority that, however, costs money. So in to honor the spirit of your question, I think one thing that would be free is to implement something like a more robust conflict of interest, something that I’m learning when I’m running this campaign is the need for the Fullerton school district to be more transparent about what the board does in its official capacity on the board and what it does in its personal capacity, let’s say campaigning. And so we have a close relationship between candidates and the administrators and the candidates when they’re in their official capacity as members of the board have to provide oversight over these non elected administrators, and that close relationship is problematic, and I’m learning about more details. And I think one of the first things that we can do when I get into office is to take a look to update our conflict of interest and our code of conduct issues.  

Hornet Media / Fullerton Observer 

Can you name your most notable endorsement? 

James Cho 

All right, my most notable endorsement, so I’ve been endorsed by teachers, parents who have children now going through the schools, parents who’ve children have long since graduated out of town, friends who are just excited that one of their boys is running for office, right? But the endorsement that I’m most proud of is a teacher from sunset lane, Mrs. Sarah Sparrow. And one of the reasons why I’m most proud of this endorsement is because what she did was brave. She was a teacher at a school that is currently being overseen by the incumbent, and she’s just ready. She’s fed up. She’s ready for a change. And I think it was brave of her to stand up, despite what might happen if I lose the election, to stand up for what she believes in. And is that kind of bravery that inspires me. 

Hornet Media / Fullerton Observer 

How can we have fair opportunities for everyone to access specialized programs throughout the schools, specifically students with mental and physical disabilities. 

James Cho 

When I was at the candidate forum outside this, one young man asked me, What does the school government do? Right? I was like, there are certain legal powers, like you can hire and fire administrator, but the one power that every elected official has is not something that’s official, that’s pissed out upon them by law, it’s inherent to their responsibility as an elected official, and it’s to shed light on a problem. It’s to shed light on an issue. You can literally grab the mic and go for the next 30 seconds, you’re going to pay attention to me talking about this one issue, and I think access issues, like access to the same quality public education for special needs children and people with individualized needs is one of the things that I have not really seen come from that board, and so one of the things that we can do as elected members of the board is to grab the mic and seize the attention of the administrators that we’re charged with overseeing and going I want you to tell me what you’re doing to improve access for these Children. On top of that, I think we could certainly implement earlier, more consistent screening for certain special needs and certain disabilities. And I think another person that you can talk to, if you haven’t talked to yet, is another candidate, Vanessa Australia. She’s the one who raised the issue that in Fullerton School District, Latino children are being disproportionately flagged for special needs and certain disabilities. And I think it’s an issue that’s that is worth digging into, and so you should definitely talk to her too.  

Hornet Media / Fullerton Observer 

What kind of help or resources can you provide for immigrant students whose status in the US is still being decided? 

James Cho 

Yeah, I want children in Fullerton schools not have to worry about the outside world when they’re in school. The only thing that they should be concerned about is having fun, learning and developing as future leaders of our nation. So one of the things that I’ve done in my like work side when I’m not a. Candidate, but I do for my day job is I work for a social services agency, and this year, as of January, 1, families that are undocumented are entitled to Medi Cal or low no cost health insurance regardless of documentation status. And my job is to make that more public to help families that are concerned about the consequences of applying for public benefits and going, listen, we’re not going to pass on your documentation status to the authorities. All we’re here to do is to help you get health, health insurance. We’re not involved with the immigration authorities. That’s what I do in my day job. That’s the kind of attitude that I would bring on the board. Is I’m not here to mess with into immigration status. I’m just here to help you learn and so that kind of education, first kids, first approach is what I would bring on the school board.