Candidate enters race for Elk Grove Unified School District Board of Trustee Area 7
A frequent speaker at Elk Grove Unified School District Trustee meetings has entered the race for the Area 7 seat.
That person is Ms. Heidi Moore. Area 7 has been represented by Carmine Forcina since 2012.
According to her campaign website, Moore, who lives in Rancho Cordova, and has children in district schools, has four focus areas. Those issues are secondary schools in Rancho Cordova, fiscal responsibility, transparency, and school site safety.
Viewers and participants of EGUSD meetings might be familiar with Moore for her frequent commentary. Recently, Moore had advocated for more facilities in the Rancho Cordova-Area 7.
During the February 6 meeting, Moore expressed frustration with the trustees over what she said was the lack of secondary schools in Area 7. She said a facility update meeting held in Rancho Cordova on January 29 was poorly conducted and was unresponsive to parental concerns.
“Did the district really think they could just show up to this group of parents and essentially present at a watered-down facility update presentation that completely disregards specific and valid concerns of Area Seven families,” Moore asked the trustees (see first video below).
As part of her candidacy, Moore has signed a pledge with the California Parents Union. According to their site, the CPU’s mission is to “Build a large membership base and child advocacy community that gives parents a real voice and seat at the table anywhere we are needed to fight for and preserve parental rights.”
Citing the COVID-19 school shutdowns starting in 2020, the CPU website says “parental rights and freedoms were trampled on as local, state and national teachers unions, the government, and unethical lawyers negotiated parental rights away for large sums of government funding” and ” special interest groups and idealogues across the state continue to sway legislators into passing unconstitutional laws that trample on the fundamental rights of parents and hurt the very people they claim to protect. Education is no longer about the basics.”
In addition to her advocacy for enhanced Area 7 facilities, Moore has also criticized the district for permitting books she and others call pornographic in school libraries (see second video below). Those efforts did not sway the district to change policies and allowed school librarians to continue to decide what books are selected for libraries.
Forcina has not declared if he will seek a fourth term. However, on Friday, March 2, he filed his California 460 form, showing his campaign is still active.
Forcina’s report shows he has $2,967 in his account and has not received any donations this year. First elected in a four-candidate race in 2012, Forcina was reelected in 216 in a two-candidate race and was unopposed in 2020.
Interestingly, during several meetings, Forcina was sympathetic to concerns expressed by Moore and others about school libraries and curriculum.
Moore has not yet reported any campaign donations.
Photo by Oleksandr P via Pexels