Booming Tracy Has Education on Its Mind

In this farm town turned Bay Area bedroom community, where home prices are tolerable but commutes are not, a single issue has captured voters’ attention like a car wreck in the middle of rush-hour traffic.

From the 5:30 a.m. Baptist men’s Bible study group to the annual picnic of a biker club called the Wild Pigs, from the daily Pop Warner football practice to the weekly Rotary luncheon, what they’re talking about here is education.

Class size, teacher testing and crumbling campuses top the list of concerns in this burgeoning town of 48,000, as the traditional Labor Day campaign season kicks off and residents’ minds turn sluggishly to the election.

“If it’s Tracy, it must be schools. Overcrowding,” says an emphatic Shelley Buchberger, 36, as she watches her son, Douglas, execute practice drills in the lipstick-melting heat. “I had to pull Douglas out [of middle school] because he wasn’t getting the education he needed. . . . I put him in a magnet school. The class is smaller, and there’s more individual attention.”

Here, where the Bay Area eases into the state’s agricultural heartland, lies Northern California’s answer to the Inland Empire, all startling growth and electoral importance.

The school district has more than doubled in size in the past decade; the city threatens to also, as well-landscaped subdivisions in tasteful earth tones rise from the fields of former farms. No candidate for statewide office can afford to lose in a region like this one, a place that guarantees success to neither Democrat nor Republican, that put Bill Clinton in the White House and Pete Wilson in the governor’s mansion, that acts a lot like the state as a whole when Californians go off to the voting booth.

Which could make Nov. 3 a dicey proposition for the men and women in the race for public office. If anything other than education snags the focus of residents here, it is the bad behavior of America’s politicians--both on the ballot and off.

In dozens of recent interviews throughout this 18-square-mile city, residents voiced umbrage at what they consider the decline of America’s moral standards. And the poster boy for the fall of general decency?

That one’s a no-brainer at the Four Corners restaurant, where the morning regulars play bar dice to see who picks up the coffee tab and Bill Clinton wins the dubious distinction hands down.

“It’s not just what he did. It’s that he lied about it,” says Bill Edwards, 73, sipping coffee with the hearing-aid-and-plaid-shirt set. “If he lied about adultery, what else would he lie about?”

“If he lied about Monica, did he really not inhale?” asks an arch Allen Cossey, 53.

“I’m not saying everybody’s honest,” offers restaurant owner Gary Reich, 44. “I don’t know if they should impeach him or if it would be good for the country. But next time we should have someone with some integrity.”

Well, don’t look to Sen. Barbara Boxer--a Democrat running for reelection--to provide that little character trait, they snort here, sitting at the lunch counter beneath the stuffed deer head.

“Between her and Janet Reno, I can’t take either one of them,” says Ed Perez, 66. And he’s the Democrat of the bunch.

But for all of Tracy’s certainty about ethics and education, about the importance of children and the need to guide their futures wisely, voters here get a lot fuzzier when the talk turns to political particulars.

There are some, like computer analyst Albert Harps, 47, who are party stalwarts and know at this early date just who they will pick for governor and why. A long-time Democrat, Harps says, “I’m going with Gray [Davis], the lieutenant governor. He has insight on how things are run.”

Past Rotary President Don Cose, who has been building houses here for more than 30 years, says he will vote for Atty. Gen. Dan Lungren “because he’s a Republican.” Not because Cose particularly likes him. Not because the two men are on the same psychic wavelength.

Cose’s Republican ballot will be a strategic one. It would be a crime, this Tracy grandfather insists, for a Democrat to be in charge when the state’s congressional districts are redrawn to reflect the new census in 2000.

Few voters are quite as sophisticated as Cose, particularly at this stage of the election process. In fact, with election day nearly two months away, most are rather vague about just who is running for what.

Lungren and Davis are largely lost in a fog of electoral inattention. Even those voters who can dredge up the men’s names have trouble going much beyond that.

An undecided Shelley Buchberger on the governor’s race: “This election is going to be difficult. They both say they stand for the same things. It’s not who’s the honest one; it’s who’s going to make their promises come true.”

State Treasurer Matt Fong, whose eye is on Boxer’s Senate seat, has it a little easier than the gubernatorial candidates--not because of who he is, but rather because of who he isn’t. Most people interviewed here--if they had an opinion at all--said they would likely vote against Boxer, which is far from a ringing endorsement of Fong.

Listen to farmer John Pereira on the Senate race: “Who’s running?”

And Fire Capt. Terry Hein: “I’m not familiar with Boxer or Fong. The last week before the voting, I look into the issues. I don’t know if I’m just a general American or what.”

Sherry Gongaware, director of facilities development for the Tracy public schools, says she’ll wait until the bitter end to decide whom to pick for senator. A Democrat with a long memory, she is still angry about the 1992 campaign.

That tight fight between Boxer and conservative Republican Bruce Herschensohn blew wide open when a high-ranking Democratic official accused Herschensohn just days before the election of frequenting a strip joint and an adult newsstand.

Gongaware is on the lookout for a reprise. Before she picks a candidate this time around, “I’ll wait until the end, when they start playing dirty politics and telling bad stories.”

Voters here are snubbing more than just the candidates; the 11 propositions on the November ballot barely register either. Even Proposition 5, the controversial measure to expand Indian casino gambling, has not risen to the surface--despite a multimillion-dollar television advertising blitz.

Not surprising in this child-centric community, the one proposition that has made any impression is the bond measure that would provide $9.1 billion in school construction funding--with ample strings attached.

Gongaware, for one, is lobbying against it. She argues that the measure is not based on the actual cost of building schools, but rather on the average cost of such construction.

“We’ve built a lot of schools,” she says, “and we can calculate the shortfall. . . . Does this mean no grass? Gravel parking lots? No books in the library? Where do you save money if you’re already building a bare-bones school? That’s our concern.”

Looking to the Future

With its emphasis on all things educational, this small suburban city fits squarely into the mainstream during this election cycle. School reform has been on the lips of nearly every politician running for public office and the focus of ballot initiatives all year long.

Over at predawn Bible study, where they’ve just polished off the book of Hebrews and are poised to tackle Genesis, a small group of young fathers sits and worries about what faces their children when they hit the classroom.

These men live here in Tracy in part because of the schools, the safe streets, the affordable housing, the healthy atmosphere. They live here for the after-school soccer programs and the ample parks, the things that make a town a home for a family.

“The citizens talk about quality-of-life issues, of feeling safe, of walking their dog at 10 in the evening,” says Mayor Dan Bilbrey. “And there are safeguards in place that ensure we will not . . . jeopardize the quality of life in the community to add additional housing units.”

But three schools here will be placed on a year-round schedule beginning next fall--a first for a district that just built six campuses. Crowding is a real problem, they say here at Southwinds church, and so is curriculum.

Tony Luiz, 33, and his wife, Sherry, have decided to teach their children at home after struggling with the decision for two years. When children go to what Luiz refers to as “government schools,” parents just can’t control the things that affect them.

There are all those other children in the classroom, and “what are they watching on TV?” Luiz wonders. “What are they bringing from home and influencing my kid with?”

So far, says Bill Mizener, 43, “we’ve made it through kindergarten with our son, Anthony. I work in the class every Monday. We go year by year. As soon as we find out who his teacher is going to be in the following year, we do research. I work in the classroom and see how it goes.”

Mizener’s is a common refrain. Sitting in his teal minivan waiting for the Tracy Raiders football and cheerleading practice to begin, Albert Harps talks about his own days in the classroom.

“Education is the top issue with me,” says this dedicated father and Tracy Raiders equipment manager. “I’m around a lot of youth. I help out in the classroom a lot. It’s important to make sure they get the proper guidance.”

Harps has lived in the region since 1985, and works two jobs with flexible hours so he can make sure he’s around for Jamison, 12, and Rachel, 11. He commutes to San Francisco every day so his children can attend school here, where the teachers are good and classroom size “is not as large as some places in the Bay Area,” he says.

Pointing to the scores of sweating, uniformed children going through their practice paces, Harps smiles. “You see all those kids out there? This is a town where they really cater toward the kids, to make sure they get the opportunity to do a lot of things.”