VALLEJO – Three political newcomers – Reba ‘Jill’ Brown, Judith Lerner, and Clarence Martin – are vying to be a member of Vallejo City Unified School District’s Board of Education. The winner will represent Trustee Area 1, which includes most of West Vallejo and Mare Island, and a portion of South Vallejo located west of Interstate 80. Current Trustee Area 1 school board representative Carlos Flores is not seeking reelection after being appointed to the board in 2022 and serving a single term.
The Vallejo Sun interviewed these candidates about their backgrounds, thoughts on how they would like to handle the district’s fiscal challenges, and the board’s unanimous decision to close three schools last year and lay off all types of employees, including school support staff, teachers, and administrators.
The candidates also discussed transparency and the California School Employee Association accusing Vallejo’s school board of violating a transparency law — called the Brown Act — by allegedly discussing school closures in a private meeting last school year, which prompted the district to void its initial decision and re-vote on the closures.
Additionally, they discussed bonds, as the district is currently considering whether or not to ask voters to extend a bond paid for through property taxes that would be earmarked for infrastructural projects, renovations, and improvements to schools.
In light of a recent viral video that showed an officer punching a student at Fairfield High School, candidates shared thoughts about police in schools.
Lastly, the candidates shared their thoughts on charter schools in response to questions from readers who filled out our general election survey.
How to vote: Ballots will be mailed to voters this week, and the completed ballots must be signed and postmarked before the polls close at 8 p.m. on Nov. 3. Voters can also vote in person on Nov. 3, Election Day.
How we reported this story: We solicited questions from our audience and attended community forums to find out what questions mattered most to Vallejo voters. We then interviewed each of the candidates to learn more about their positions and what they plan to do in office. You can find out more about how we cover elections on our FAQ.
Reba ‘Jill’ Brown
Reba ‘Jill’ Brown has worked as a tax preparer for 30 years. She was born in Colorado, and has lived in Vallejo for 31 years. Her three children all attended Vallejo public schools. Additionally, one of her grandchildren graduated from a Vallejo public school, and her other grandchild currently attends Jessie Bethel High School.
Brown describes herself as an “angry grandma and taxpayer” who is unhappy with the direction the board and district have been moving in. She thinks that her decades of experience helping people prepare their taxes will be of aid to a district that is facing a projected $23 million deficit for the next fiscal year.
“They need someone to pay attention to the finances,” Brown said. “If you’re running a household and your budget is $100,000, you don’t spend $110,000.”
Brown agreed with the board’s decision to close three schools, saying the closures “were necessary due to the decline in students,” but she also said that “some of the support staff reductions didn’t make sense.”
Brown said she wants the district to avoid layoffs in the future, and wants to figure out ways to bring money into the district to avoid cuts.
“Instead of asking, ‘Who can we fire?,’ or ‘What can we get rid of?,’” Brown said. “We should be asking, ‘What can we do to generate more income?’”
Brown thinks the district could generate funds by selling shuttered campuses or renting them out to a non-profit.
“An unused school could be an excellent homeless shelter,” Brown said. “Is there a nonprofit that would rent it?”
Brown is critical about the way the district and board handled transparency last year. When asked about the alleged Brown Act violation, she said that it was “so against what a school board should do,” and “whoever initiated those meetings should be terminated immediately.”
Brown is also critical of safety issues at Vallejo schools. She said students who are bullied or abused need more leeway to fight back, and shouldn’t be punished.
“How many kids are out there getting bullied, and when they fight back, they get suspended?” Brown said. “Do we want to teach our young people that they can’t defend themselves anymore?”
Brown thinks Vallejo needs police in its public schools or more security officers. She said she supports the police officer seen punching and pulling the hair of a student at Fairfield High School.
“That kid in that video deserved everything he had coming,” Brown said.
Brown does not support asking voters to extend a bond to pay for infrastructural improvements.
“The whole mathematics needs to be revisited,” Brown said. “You can’t just say, ‘Oh well, we still need this money.’ Live within your means.”
Brown said she doesn’t know where she stands on independent charter schools, but said that she “can understand parents being frustrated” with the public school system and “wanting to put their kids in a different environment.”
Brown thinks the district can learn from charters, see what makes them attractive to parents, and incorporate that into its own schools.
“I would like to see what the charters do differently to make parents say we want to have our kids there,” Brown said. “Is it that they are policed better? What’s going on differently?”
Endorsements for Brown include the Vallejo chapter of the California School Employees Association, which represents school support staff.
Judith Lerner
Judith Lerner grew up in upstate New York and has lived in Vallejo for 25 years. During that time, she taught special education at Vallejo’s Hogan Middle and Hogan High School. She retired in June.
Lerner has also been a longtime activist, and is currently active with ACLU Northern California, deFLOCK Vallejo, and the Vallejo Gay Network.
“My activism and my teaching are motivated by a deep belief that all people deserve to be valued and respected,” Lerner said. “That access to a quality education should not depend on zip code.”
Lerner thinks the current board and administration have been moving in the right direction.
“Part of the reason I’m excited to run is we have a really good district admin and I’m happy to join their effort towards a progressive and inclusive and positive school district,” Lerner said.
About the school closures and cuts to staff, Lerner said they caused “great pain” but the administration and board handled them well, particularly by offering incentives for teachers who decided to retire early.
“I think they really have done a very responsible and difficult job in figuring out how to, as they say, ‘rightsize,'” Lerner said.
Lerner said a big part of the job going forward will be to foster school communities for students that have switched schools. She thinks it’s unlikely more deep cuts will occur.
“Nobody can predict everything, but I don’t think that we will see any more really big cuts like that,” Lerner said.
Concerning the subject of transparency and the alleged Brown Act violation, Lerner said she doesn’t know whether board members and the administration made a mistake, but by re-voting publicly on the closures, they “tried to make it right.”
Lerner said she thinks the Brown Act is “really complicated” and that “it’s easy to misstep.”
“The main point of what the school board tries to do is bring the community in, so transparency in principle is exactly what you need,” Lerner said. “And yet, it’s hard to imagine working with people where you can’t talk to them casually here and there without stepping in something that you shouldn’t. I will endeavor to follow the Brown Act and do my best.”
Lerner said she is against police in schools. She said in her experience, outside issues cause students to have behavioral problems, and they need help to act appropriately.
“When there’s bullying in schools, the place to stop it is not after it happens with punishment but before it happens with support,” Lerner said.
Lerner said she would personally vote for an infrastructural bond to improve school sites, but she thinks that, due to the recent cuts and closures, the school system needs to prove to the public it’s moving in the right direction before placing a bond measure on the ballot.
“I think we’ll have to show we’ve built back up first,” Lerner said.
Lerner opposes charter schools, in part because she said that her students who attended charters told her they didn’t get the special education support services they needed. She thinks public schools have to do a better job of promoting themselves and providing a quality education in order to compete with charters.
“Parents want the best education, and our task is to make it so they don’t have to leave,” Lerner said. “Some of that is about perception, and some of that is us having to make sure we do everything we have to do to provide the best education for our students.”
Endorsements for Lerner include the Vallejo Education Association, the Solano County Democratic Central Committee, and the Solano Association of Realtors.
Clarence Martin
Clarence Martin was born and raised in Vallejo. He’s a single dad of two children who both attended Vallejo schools. He runs a towing company called Community Tow, which offers free tows and jumping services to people experiencing homelessness in Vallejo.
Martin frequently attends the Vallejo school board and Police Oversight and Accountability Commission meetings and makes public comments. He serves on a committee that oversees bond spending for district schools, and has volunteered in the Willie B. Atkins Scholars Program, and as a crossing guard at Vallejo High during the 2024-25 school year. He currently volunteers at a food pantry called Faith Food Fridays.
“I’m a very involved and informed person in the community,” Martin said. “That will help me be a better board member.”
Vallejo’s school district exited over 20 years of state receivership in January of last year, and Martin said that he thinks the current administration and board did a good job of “getting the keys back” from the state. He also thinks the closures and cuts were necessary and district leaders were “brave” to make them.
But Martin said he wants the board to make sure it doesn’t have to make deep cuts again.
“I was upset about that,” Martin said. “I want to ensure in the future that we don’t have to make those choices again.”
Martin thinks the district needs to improve on its parent engagement, which is something he said he’d work on as a board member.
“Whenever a parent feels left out of their kids’ education they seem to be disengaged, less concerned,” Martin said. “But when you have a parent who is invited into the classroom, that parent feels more included.”
Martin also said the board and district administration made a mistake by allegedly violating the Brown Act by meeting in private to discuss school closures.
“That’s never ok,” Martin said. “You don’t want to get in the habit of doing that.”
Martin said he would not participate in a private meeting to discuss matters that should be discussed publicly, and would “bring it up” to the board and attempt to “stop it from happening” if he thought that board members were violating transparency law.
Martin supports police in schools but said they would need strict rules, like needing to consult with school staff before intervening in a conflict between students.
“I think the police should have a presence but not an authority,” Martin said. “Any police should be well-trained in restorative practices and dealing with youth.”
Martin said he “100% supports” asking voters to extend bonds. He said that the current bonds helped fund a new auditorium at Hogan Middle School, and new athletic fields at Jessie Bethel High School. He said that an extension wouldn’t raise taxes, and would instead keep taxes at the same level.
“The pandemic really shook us up and we need the bonds to prepare for the future,” Martin said. “And this particular bond extension would not ask for more money.”
On the subject of independent charter schools, Martin said they are “just another choice for a certain group of kids,” but there’s a danger to them “saturating our community.” He thinks there are too many charter schools in Vallejo, and would not want to see more coming in.
Martin said he would take his oversight duties of charters seriously as a board member, and would be strict about making sure such schools follow the law.
“As a board member, I would want to see exactly what they’re doing,” Martin said. “If they’re following the rules, ok, but if they’re slipping up or doing things they shouldn’t be doing, we should revoke their license.”
Endorsements for Martin include the Solano Association of Realtors, hip hop artist and community activist Stanley Cox, who’s better known as Mr. F.A.B., and Boys and Girls Empowerment Group founder Orlando Graham.
Independent local news depends on you
The Vallejo Sun is supported by readers who value reliable, in-depth local news. Your support helps us continue investigating important issues and keeping Vallejo informed.
Become a member today
