A Day in the Life
Cindy Gerges is a Staff Attorney at Public Advocates, working with our Education Team.
Months of work with community partners has gone into developing a ‘train the trainers” workshop to ensure community members can meaningfully participate in the review of school districts’ spending plans. State law says funds are supposed to be invested into new or improved services and programs for high-need students, including English language learners, low-income students and foster youth. The goal of this workshop is to build community power through knowledge & understanding of the law. Here’s a glimpse into Cindy’s day.
9:00 am: It’s the day before our workshop with Building Healthy Communities Monterey County, one of our community partners.
On a call with them, we finish up the training slides. Alice and Nicole (my PA colleagues) and I set the agenda for our prep check-in call that’s a few hours away. We’ve worked for months on the workshop. The goal is to train community organizers who will, in turn, train their base to know how to direct precious education funds to high need students by using the Local Control Funding Formula (LFCC) law. It’s community power-building, at its best.
I’m really excited about this training because parents, students, and staff across 5 districts in Monterey County will be there.
9:00 am: I made sure to get a good night’s sleep. Now – I drink my coffee and add last minute touches to the workshop slides.
Noon: We meet with BHC to review the slides, roles, and script one last time – we’re almost ready to go
4:00 pm: The day got ahead of me and I realize I don’t have any dinner prepped, so I Doordash my food and get it with just enough time to spare so I can multitask – eat and run through my slides at the same time, trying my hardest to not spill on my suit that finally has come out of retirement. I take a deep breath and set myself up with my dinner and the computer – the suit still looks good!
5:30 pm: We all run from one meeting to the next to our prep session. We make it just in time, realize we forgot to designate a DJ for the workshop and at the last minute, I decide to bravely (but hesitantly) take on the role. As we are getting ready to start, we see participants joining the waiting room.
My adrenaline spikes, and I repeat to myself my favorite AOC quote, do my power pose, and open up the workshop.
“I am experienced enough to do this. I am knowledgeable enough to do this. I am prepared enough to do this. I am mature enough to do this. I am brave enough to do this.”
Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez
6:00 pm: It’s go-time and folks are finally trickling in.
I can’t believe it, it’s been just 5 minutes and we are at 50 participants already!
I start playing some tunes, get to know the participants in the room and break out into small groups – answering the prompt for tonight: “what are the needs at your school?”
We all come out of our small groups and share out. Every district and community is different. Common needs connect parents and students through multiple districts, bringing us together. We hear answers ranging from the importance of prioritizing the well-being of students, to providing safety (acceptance, protection, like they belong), to addressing learning loss with tutoring and other types of help. Parents and students emphasize trust and engagement.
As the training continues, we work to ground folks in district budgeting, emphasizing the history of LCFF and the people power behind it. I make sure to share that LCFF is called “our law” or “la ley de la gente” because it would not have been possible without the parents, students, and organizations like BHC who fought for it over 10 years. They marched and testified in Sacramento to make the law a reality and ensure that engagement was centered, funding was equitable, and that student success would be measured by more than just test scores.
7:00 pm. As the workshop came to a close, we asked everyone how they planned to use the information.
One comment really stayed with me:
“Muchas Gracias por tan importante información. El conocimiento és poder!!!!! Gracias por estos entrenamientos!!!!!”
Participant Maria Flores
In English: “Many thanks for such important information. Knowledge is power!!!!! Thanks for these trainings!!!”
When the workshop ended, 50 participants were still with us. They represented multiple Monterey districts including Salinas Union, Salinas City, Alisal, Soledad, and Monterey Peninsula. After they left, we quickly debriefed with BHC parent and student leaders, shared our pluses and deltas, briefly discussed Workshop 2, and set a date for our next meeting to do it all over again. I’m feeling energized!
10:00 pm: It was a long day but as I turned off my computer for the night, I felt a sense of gratitude for the participants that showed up tonight. As parents and students with many responsibilities in their lives, they chose to spend their evening with us – with what they’d learned, and the confidence that had grown, they were eager to continue advocating, spreading the word, and ensuring that student needs would be heard, and would be met.
