SUSD candidates AngelAnn Flores, Xavier Mountain debate at The Record

Stockton Unified School District Trustee AngelAnn Flores and candidate Xavier Mountain engaged in debate on Oct. 26 at The Record on who would best serve area 2 of Stockton’s largest school district.

Stockton Unified serves roughly 38,000 students — 94% minority enrollment — as the 15th largest school district in California. Yet SUSD’s 78% graduation rate is in the lower 50% of all districts in California. Quality education impacts families and businesses choosing Stockton as a home.

Mountain, 30, serves on the city planning commission. He said he came up through foster care in Stockton and now owns his own wellness technology business, Endiscover.app. Mountain said Stockton is not a company, and SUSD is not something to be sold. He’s instead focused on using his education in psychology to be a “voice of reason” on the board and have a positive impact on SUSD’s youth.

“If (businesses) say no, they can eff off,” Mountain said, “and guess what we’re going to do? We’re going to build our youth up so they can become the new businesses. They become new leaders.”

Xavier Lopez Mountain participates in a debate with Angelann Flores for the SUSD board District 2 seat at the Stockton Record's office in downtown Stockton on Wednesday Oct.  26, 2022.

Flores, a Stockton native, former educator, mother of four and grandmother of four, has served on the school board since 2018. She said the district saw real progress in the first two years of her tenure, but COVID and the current supermajority on the board has torn down years of progress. Flores has voted against or abstained from nearly all the current board’s actions.

“My colleagues on the board have allowed illegal contracts and illegal spending,” Flores said. “I’ve been told I’m only one vote … what I have done is organize the awareness of the decisions that have been made and bringing community and people to the table to voice their concerns and let the board know the decisions we aren’ t making as a whole are not benefiting our students, it is actually harming them.”

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Flores said she’s the one who sounded the alarm resulting in two scathing San Joaquin County Grand Jury reports showing financial mismanagement and dysfunction at Stockton Unified and the state audit looking for fraud and illegal fiscal practices that’s currently underground. Stockton Unified has no master plan that shows how more than $241 million in one-time federal COVID-relief funds are or will be spent and the district’s Business Services Department has been unable to provide data and accounting for spending, according to the June grand jury report.

“Your guess is as good as mine,” Flores said as to how the federal COVID-19 relief money is being spent. “(Some) has already been spent on job positions, which should not have been paid for … there’s a lot of misspent ESSER funding that we will probably have to pay back.”

Angelann Flores participates in a debate against Xavier Lopez Mountain for the SUSD board District 2 seat at the Stockton Record's office in downtown Stockton on Wednesday Oct.  26, 2022.

Flores said she does not support Measure C, the $215 million bond measure on the Nov. 8 ballot for career and technical training facilities and general site upkeep. She doesn’t trust where the money would go.

“We still have millions of dollars given to allies and friends of my colleagues on the board that we have no account of,” Flores said. “I refuse to put that burden and add another tax on the constituents in my area when I cannot honestly tell you that the funds are going where they should.”

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Mountain claimed the $5,000 he said he’s spent on his campaign is “funded by me and good-hearted people,” but as of the latest Oct. 27 campaign finance filing deadline, he has not filed any campaign finance records for the public to see despite State law requires papers filed for those who spend over $2,000.

Mountain declined to comment on the behavior of the current board, but said “it shouldn’t be that way, unfortunately, but that’s the reality. People have feelings.” On the district’s financial woes and transparency issues, Mountain kept it brief.

“We just need cleaning up,” Mountain said.

Mountain did say he wants to focus on school safety.

“I know firsthand the importance of having a stable, safe, healthy environment for kids to thrive. That’s something I wanted the most,” Mountain said. “How do you push to educate a community like SUSD when a lot of the children are dealing with trauma and fears? Once we give them (safety) and they feel secure, then they’ll have a good environment to learn.”

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Flores jabbed Mountain for being “allied” with the sitting board majority and endorsed by 209 Times — Mountain said he was unaware of the 209 Times endorsement, instead touting his endorsements from Stockton Mayor Kevin Lincoln and Councilmember Christina Fugazi, who appointed him to her district’s planning commission seat.

“Right now we need to give the community that hope, that push, that drive, and that bleeds right into our youth,” Mountain said. “One thing I learned about kids, you just give them a reason to believe in something, they’ll do the rest, and I think that’s the goal right there.”

Flores has spent about $31,000 on her reelection campaign, with $25,000 coming from one source, the Central Valley Leadership Fund. The PAC is doling out big checks to local candidates with leftovers from large 2020 donations from Michael Bloomberg and charter school-linked nonprofit Campaign for Great Public Schools.

“Everybody’s really upset about the district … I’ve proven my commitment to SUSD … and that’s why I’ve earned all their endorsements,” Flores said. “I kept my promise to you when I knocked on your doors in 2018 to hold the district accountable and transparent at all levels … I will continue to fight for your family and your students for as many years as you will allow me.”

Record reporter Ben Irwin covers Stockton and San Joaquin County government. He can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @B1rwin. Support local news, subscribe to The Stockton Record at recordnet.com/subscribenow.

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