A San Diego State University administrator, a Chula Vista councilman and a waiter are running for the District 1 seat on the County Board of Education to represent Coronado, San Diego neighborhoods along state Route 94 and much of South County.
Jose Preciado, 37, of Chula Vista, is the director of college readiness programs at San Diego State. He is president of South Bay Forum, a political action committee. He is on the county's Democratic Central Committee.
His top priority is to close the achievement gap – disparities in test scores, graduation rates and other measures between rich and poor students, white and non-whites, native English speakers and non-English-speakers. He also wants to promote post-secondary education and vocational training as goals for students after high school.
Preciado said he believes county board members should play a more active role as ambassadors for public education. County board members are in a position to highlight big-picture issues and to bring together coalitions across education, health, business and other sectors of society.
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Jerry Rindone
Age: 62
Residence: Chula Vista
Family: Fiancee Rosa Romero; two adult children
Party: Republican
Occupation: Retired educator/city councilman
Education: Bachelor's degree in social studies, 1968; master's degree in education, 1975; teaching credential, administrative credential, San Diego State University
Jose Preciado
Age: 37
Residence: Chula Vista
Family: Single
Party: Democratic
Occupation: University administrator
Education: Bachelor's degree in Latin American studies and Spanish, San Diego State University, 1996
Web site: votepreciado.com
Yuriy Bilokonsky
Age: 19
Residence: Chula Vista
Family: Single
Party: Republican
Occupation: Writer, waiter
Education: Pursuing associate's degree, Cuyahoga Community College
Web site: yuriybilokonsky.newsvine.com
County Board of Education
 The five-member board hires the county superintendent of schools, oversees a budget of $647 million and is directly responsible for the education of about 3,800 students in the juvenile court and community schools.
The board makes broad policy decisions on the services the County Office of Education provides for 42 local public school districts.
Members of the county board of education receive a stipend of $420 per month.
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“I'm interested in starting to be an effective and active member of coalitions and groups that are going to start looking at how this entire region remains a vibrant economy,” Preciado said.
He has the endorsements of Rep. Bob Filner, D-San Diego, and county board incumbent Nick Aguilar.
Jerry Rindone, 62, is a Chula Vista city councilman and retired high school principal.
He wants the San Diego County Office of Education to refine its teacher training so that educators can make better use of data to inform their classroom practice. Teachers need training in how to interpret the wealth of data resulting from student tests and in how to customize their teaching in response to their findings, Rindone said.
Rindone, too, intends to make reducing the achievement gap a high priority. To that end, he plans to be diligent in assuring that money and resources are directed to the campuses with the greatest challenges. It may be, he said, that many of those campuses are in South County. South Bay districts generally have higher populations of non-English-speakers and low-income students than other areas of the county.
Rindone's other priorities are school safety, ensuring that local school districts get good service from the County Office of Education and monitoring school budgets. He touts a long résumé of public service that includes a 38-year public education career, four terms as a Chula Vista City Council member and 18 years on the region's transit board.
He is endorsed by Assemblywoman Shirley Horton, R-Bonita, and county board member Bob Watkins.
Yuriy Bilokonsky, 19, of Chula Vista, is not actively campaigning for the seat. He moved to Chula Vista four months ago from Ohio, where he had been a community college student.
He proposes making home schooling the standard for education so parents have more freedom to raise their children as they see fit. He believes the government should not be involved in education.
“The government pretty much screws up everything it touches by making people resent it or making people dependent on it,” Bilokonsky said. The county board is the policy-making body that oversees the education of about 4,000 students in the juvenile court and community schools as well as the County Office of Education's operations that support 42 local school districts.
If one of the three candidates gets more than 50 percent of the vote in June, he wins the seat and starts a four-year term in January. If no candidate wins a majority, the top two vote-getters will compete in a run-off election in November.
Chris Moran: (619) 498-6637; chris.moran@uniontrib.com
