2 vie for college board in heated campaign 2 vie for college board in heated campaign (October 29, 2004)

Pleasanton educators spar over growth, programs
by Jeb Bing

Two Pleasanton educators are vying for an open seat on the Chabot-Las Positas Community College District board in one of the most contentious campaigns since the district was formed nearly 30 years ago.

The candidates are Lynn Carstensen Martin, who served on the board from 1996-2000, and Carlo Vecchiarelli, a downtown businessman and retired Dean of Admissions and teacher in the college district. They are seeking to succeed local Realtor Gary Schwaegerle, who defeated Martin in the 2000 election but has chosen not to seek a second term.

Although Martin and Vecchiarelli have worked together in recent years, she as a board member and he as a college district administrator, and have even longer similar associations with the two district colleges as parents and students, they now have differing views on how the district should be governed and progress.

Vecchiarelli warns that both the Chabot and Las Positas college campuses face enrollment problems because neighboring community college districts have built or plan to build new schools on the district borders. He said the board failed to object to these plans at meetings with state community college officials before they agreed to support and fund these new campuses.

As a result, Fremont's Ohlone College recently opened its new Newark campus, attracting students from Newark, Hayward and other Bayside cities who used to attend Chabot. Delta College in San Joaquin County has received approval to build another campus in Mountain House, which Vecchiarelli said will attract students from I-580 population centers, including Tracy, who now attend Las Positas College. Diablo Valley College also is building a new campus just a few miles from Las Positas in Dougherty Valley which, Vecchiarelli contended, will again draw students currently attending Las Positas College.

But Martin disagreed. She said the new colleges will offer classes and programs that the Chabot-Las Positas district does not offer, giving community college students throughout the area a wider selection of course studies. While Las Positas has a number of laser and other high-tech courses in association with its unique relationship with the Lawrence Livermore Laboratory, Ohlone College features a program in radio broadcasting that neighboring colleges do not offer. DVC's new Dougherty Valley campus will offer special classes in art and design that other schools don't offer. Students from any of the schools can take courses at another college while still continuing their main course work toward an associate degree, she explained.

"Besides," Martin added, "the general education classes at Las Positas and to some extent at Chabot are filled. We need these new colleges to support the tremendous population growth we're seeing in this region. There are more than enough students to go around."

Martin also said the college districts need to work together, not compete.

"For us to have any impact at all in seeking funding from the state and federal agencies, we need to be together in our appeals. Do you think that when we go to Sacramento and ask for funds that we'll have any support from the other districts if we are complaining about their expansion plans?"

Vecchiarelli, however, argued that regions such as the Tri-Valley can have too many community colleges, making each of them less efficient and more expensive to operate. He cited San Mateo County, where the local district operates three campuses and has been unable to fill Skyline and La Canada colleges as planned.

"At one time, when I was the Registrar at Chabot College, we had 40 percent of our students coming from cities outside of Hayward," Vecchiarelli said. "Today, with Ohlone's new campus in Newark, we're not getting those students. It's not a good situation and you can actually have too many community colleges in one area."

Vecchiarelli also wants to provide more financial and contractual oversight on the Chabot-Las Positas board, which he believes is now lacking. He would insist on requiring Project Labor Agreements to ensure that contractors use union labor or pay prevailing wages and hire local workers. In the past, construction bids have been granted to those making the lowest-cost offers with out-of-town contractors using fewer skilled workers. The recent construction of the new Learning Center at Las Positas by a non-union contractor required the college to pay more than $200,000 in "callbacks" to repair construction problems, including a lighting system that had to be rewired.

He also said the board made the wrong decision in buying its new headquarters building at 5020 Franklin Drive in Pleasanton for $4.8 million when it could have acquired a better structure in downtown Livermore for less.

"I look at that building and I see a $400,000 note," Vecchiarelli said. "It costs us $4,000 to add a class, so that building represents to me the loss of 100 classes in our college district."

Martin said the Livermore site had problems, including the fact that the city would have continued to own the land, always adding uncertainty if the college structure stood in the way of Livermore's downtown development plans, which are now under way.

While praising Vecchiarelli for his years of service as a Chabot College teacher and administrator, she said the college board does not need another administrator.

"What the board doesn't have is a certified public accountant, which I am," she added. "I was the only CPA on the board when I served during my first four years and was quickly assigned to the district's budget audit committee. That's the kind of oversight I would be providing again."

Both candidates will be canvassing Pleasanton neighborhoods today through Monday, and will have their campaign signs and teams at Farmers Market tomorrow, Saturday.

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