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Politics & Government

The Ubiquitous They - Andre Stewart

Andre Stewart is the President of the Benicia Unified School Board of Trustees

Who are you and what is your role in the community? My name is and I am the President of the Board of Trustees(BUSD).

Why did you choose to serve with the School District? Because I believe in a commitment to the public. To be honest, having been through horrible schools, in Chicago public schools I saw how valuable schools (and education) are. When given that opportunity, how could I say no? The thing I tell my sons is, “you can complain or you can do something about it."

How long have you been in Benicia?  We’ve been here since 1998.  I got a job offer in Napa and we were looking for a place to live on the Internet and this ‘Benicia’ (he pronounces it as Ben-i-kai-ah) popped up. We were looking for a place that was not heavily Republican, not heavily Democrat, something that was in the middle, and someplace with a cooler temperature. It just had all the pieces, so we came here and we fell in love with the town. There’s an eclectic-ness about the town that’s really cool. I like the fact that people have various opinions, and its not just swayed to one side.

Besides the budget, what is the one thing you would like to change in the BUSD?  Pathway programs, or as it was called when I was growing up, vocational ed. It’s absolutely necessary. We have to prepare students for work world or college. And, what I see is that we are not able to do it with the (budget) cuts. So these kids then graduate and go off to college and sometimes they are not prepared. Or, they go off to the work world and they are just not prepared. And we need to really get our focus on that. I know it’s difficult to tell a 15-year old, ‘you’re going to be an electrician,’ or for a 15-year-old to say they are going to be an electrician; I can see that they don’t know what they want to do but, it’s better to know what you don’t want to do with a skill. Having had meetings with the Solano Building Trades Union, they’re dieing to get Benicia kids to sign up for their apprentice programs, especially the women. But, our kids are not fast to go into those roles. I think the feeling is that (the trades) are not as glamorous.  I beg to differ. Those are real honest good solid livings.

In previous generations, kids maybe had a better idea of what they wanted to do when they grow up. Do you think this has changed? I think as parents, the one thing we’ve done phenomenally well is build our kids self esteem. The downside to a high level of self esteem is that sometimes they are not prepared (to choose their future) because they feel as though they can step in and do anything…they are so confident that things will work out for them. They have more opportunities than they know what to do with. My own children, when I grow up, I want to be them. They have opportunities I couldn’t dream of.

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