Why GRCAR for Trustee?
Dr. Grcar will bring unique experience and perspective to the Board of Trustees. A Mathematics Ph.D. with a career in high-tech, he understands the tech industries where many students find jobs here, and he also knows the universities where many students complete four-year degrees. All current Trustees have experience only in classroom education. As your Area 4 Trustee, Dr. Grcar pledges to prioritize:
Educating for Tomorrow's Workforce. Dr. Grcar sees the importance of preparing students for jobs of the future. He supports expanding STEM programs and vocational training, ensuring our graduates are ready for the evolving job market. For example, the Tesla company has a Manufacturing Development Program, which offers jobs to students after they learn electronics and robotics at Ohlone College in Fremont, Diablo Valley College in Pleasant Hill, and Laney College in Oakland—but NOT at our Chabot or Las Positas Colleges in Hayward and Livermore. What is wrong with this map?
Quality Higher Education. With an unwavering commitment to academic excellence, Dr. Grcar will champion initiatives to enhance curriculum, attract top-tier faculty, and improve student experiences. Crucial to ensuring success are metrics to quantify performance. The average student-teacher ratio among California community colleges is 20:1, but Las Positas College has 22:1, and Chabot College is even worse at 24:1. Further, only a little more than half of the highest-paid college employees—earning over $100,000 per year—are classroom teachers. What is wrong with this picture?
Fiscal Responsibility. A scientist trained to make decisions based on facts, Dr. Grcar will be a vigilant steward of taxpayer dollars. Voters approved $1 billion in construction bonds, much of which has not been issued and will expire in a few years. However, enrollments declined during the pandemic and have not recovered. Moreover, the trend is to have fewer Californians of student age, and much instruction is now performed over the internet, such as by Zoom. Are buildings a wise investment at this time?
Active, Participatory Democracy. You may not know community college Trustees are elected, because the last Trustee election in Area 4 was 2002. Trustees are usually appointed when one retires in mid-term, and then, nobody runs against the incumbents, who are returned to office without appearing on a ballot. In fact, Dr. Reynoso in Area 1 is the only currently serving Trustee who has ever been elected. By challenging the never-elected incumbent in Area 4, Dr. Grcar is restoring your right to vote for a Trustee.
College Trustee Draws Challenger
By Christina Cavallaro Oct 3, 2024 Updated Oct 7, 2024
Maria L. Heredia, retired community college counselor and department chair, is facing a challenger in her run for re-election to the board of trustees for the Chabot-Las Positas Community College District. Joseph Grcar, a technology industry veteran, has filed to run for the Area 4 seat, which represents the area served by three school districts: Sunol Glen, Castro Valley and part of Pleasanton.
The board of trustees is responsible for the governance of Chabot College in Hayward and Las Positas College in Livermore. The position is one that Heredia has held since July of 2019, when she was appointed following the unexpected death of longtime Trustee Donald “Dobie” Gelles in May of that year. She lives in Castro Valley. Joseph Grcar, who holds a mathematics Ph.D. and who also resides in Castro Valley, is also running for the BART Board of Directors, Castro Valley Sanitary District (CVSan) and Hayward Area Recreation and Park District (HARD). ...
For Grcar, challenging the appointed, but never-elected incumbent Heredia, is about “restoring your right to vote for a trustee.”
“It’s all about standing up for participatory active democracy,” he said. “The races that I'm running for would not even be on the ballot, unless I had run for them.” He said the last election for trustee in Area 4 was in 2002.
Grcar said that his career in high tech combined with his Ph.D. in a STEM field uniquely sets him apart from other board trustees whose backgrounds are all in education. “I understand the kind of work environment that the college students would go into.”
If elected, he would focus on educating tomorrow’s workforce, he said, and cited the training program that Tesla in Fremont offers, and which is connected to other Bay Area schools like Laney College in Oakland.
“After you learn robotics and electronics, then they’ll give you a job working at the Tesla factory. But they don’t interface with Chabot or Las Positas. I mean, huh?”
He said he’d also push for a set of metrics for success, “I’d want to know what the hot fields are, and what are our programs in them, and what are the percentage of students who haven’t been able to graduate yet.”
I am troubled by some of this data.