OXNARD : Latino Activist Seeks School Board Post

A former board president for an Oxnard-based Latino-advocacy group has announced that she is running for the Oxnard Union High School District board in the November election.

Margaret Cortese, an Oxnard clinical psychologist who has served as board president for El Concilio del Condado de Ventura, will kick off her campaign Friday at a rally at Cafe Ole on 5th and C streets in Oxnard. The event will last from 4 to 7 p.m.

Cortese is the first person to announce her candidacy for the November election, when three of five board seats will be at stake.

Board President Nancy Koch and Trustees Janet Lindgren and Jean Daily-Underwood are all up for reelection.

Koch, who is completing her first term, said Friday she plans to run again. But Lindgren and Daily-Underwood, who have each been on the board for more than 20 years, said Friday they haven’t decided whether to seek election to new four-year terms.

The 54-year-old Cortese said Latino leaders in Oxnard encouraged her to run.

Although more than half of the 12,000 students in the Oxnard high school district are Latino, there are few Latinos in leadership positions in the district. Newly appointed trustee Fred Judy is black, but the other four board members, the superintendent and the assistant superintendents are all white.

As a Latino community leader, Cortese said she could help the district reach out to get more Latino parents involved in the schools.

“You’ll see involvement by Latino parents when there is a culturally sensitive effort to reach out to parents,” Cortese said.

In addition to her past leadership of El Concilio, Cortese is a co-founder of Teatro de las Americas, an Oxnard community theater group that presents plays in Spanish.