[Editor's note: We'll be interviewing candidates in races with neighborhood relevance ahead of the citywide elections in November. To kick things off, we recently sat down with Tom Temprano, who is running for a seat on the board of trustees of the City College of San Francisco.]
Tom Temprano has been described as an activist by day, DJ by night. Both experiences could help him get elected to the trustee board overseeing the city's troubled community college system.
The usually bearded 29-year-old has already been making his mark on city entertainment as the founder and promoter of monthly outdoor Soul dance party Hard French, and as a co-owner of the Virgil's Sea Room bar on Mission Street.
He's also a recent president of the progressive Harvey Milk LGBT Democratic Club, where he remains a member of its board of directors, and a past campaigner for current supervisors John Avalos and David Campos (particularly around housing issues). He's received the endorsements of both supervisors, along with Jane Kim and former state assembly member Tom Ammiano.
A Big Election
So why does he want to get into education politics? The answer goes back to his childhood in Southern California, and extends through his recent activism and big local issues.
"Community colleges can turn people's lives around," he explains. "With the current housing affordability crisis we need community colleges now more than ever. They are a tool that helps families and individuals to lift themselves up and stabilize."
The trustee race is itself particularly interesting this year because of the housing issue, and because of the problems the college itself has been dealing with.
The two-year community college has locations across many city neighborhoods and beyond; with nearly 80,000 students enrolled in some form, it is one of the larger such systems in the country.
Because of its broad reach, CCSF has come to own significant parcels of land over the years that could be developed to provide more housing. Fierce debates are raging already around what that might look like. The trustees will help decide the outcome. Temprano, like other leading local progressives, would like to see development focused on helping the school (by building housing for homeless students, for example).
The college is also trying to overcome an effort by an academic governing body to remove its accreditation, allegedly over widespread mismanagement.
"A small, non-transparent group decided to take their power away," Temprano says bluntly about the school's convoluted saga. "The Accrediting Commission For Community and Junior Colleges largely manufactured this crisis. People are now calling this agency into question."
The ACCJC cited a laundry list of problems, including falling enrollment and unfunded liabilities from an employee benefits program, when it voted against renewing accreditation in 2013. Without the commission's approval, the school would be denied public funds and be forced to shut down.
A court order, however, has blocked the ACCJC decision from going into effect. The controversy continues to work its way through the legal system, and CCSF is meanwhile trying to fix problems on its own. The trustees themselves were temporarily replaced by a special commissioner, but they're being reinstated this month.
A Public Education
Temprano's belief in publicly-funded education goes back to his childhood in Southern California.
First, his father was born to immigrant parents, learned English in public schools, and eventually became a teacher and principal.
Then at fifteen, Temprano came out to his high school drama teacher. "She had made it known that she had a gay brother," he recalls. "I was lucky to have supportive role models."
Community college in his SoCal hometown was part of Temprano's success story. "When I was 16 years old I got sick and had to drop out of high school. Fortunately I was able to enroll in community college classes. I got back on track and rejoined my high school class."
Temprano also shared his sister's inspiring story. "My sister spent much of her teens in and out of jail," he says. "Two years ago she decided to change the course of her life by enrolling in community college. I was so proud to watch her graduate last summer."
He acknowledges that many other kids weren't so lucky. He recalled the 2008 killing of Lawrence King, a fifteen year old gay student in Oxnard, California. King was shot to death by a fellow student.
In addition to his broader platform, these experiences have molded his view of what public education should provide. "We have to change the way schools deal with LGBTQ students and issues," adds Temprano. "Teachers, administrators and students need to treat LGBTQ students differently than they do now."
He feels that community colleges are good places for such changes to be made, especially for LGBTQ people. "Now is not the time to cut funding at City College," he said. "Now is the time to put more resources into the college so we can help people who are slipping through the cracks. These days it seems like everyone is slipping through the cracks."
Specifically, Temprano says, 29% of homeless youth identify as LGBT, with queer and trans people of color being particularly hard-hit. He wants them, and others, to have access to affordable housing and an education.
"There's a lack of resources to help queer and trans people of color," he says. "We are in danger of losing our diversity because of the affordability crisis."
He cited housing stability as the primary issue currently affecting the LGBT community. "LGBT people are more vulnerable to homelessness."
The Temprano Platform
Beyond housing, Temprano wants to pull out all the stops to increase enrollment. His campaign platform includes cutting overhead expenses to save money but preventing more cuts to classes and related services to ensure lots of options for prospective students.
Then he wants to institute a grassroots marketing campaign, drawing from his experiences promoting Hard French and political causes, to get more sign-ups.
"We're seeing an enrollment crisis," he tells us. "We need to let people know that City College is open for business, that classes are open. City College needs cheerleaders."
You can get a taste of what that might look like from his campaign site:
No matter what your occupation or hobby, City College has a class for you at a campus right around the corner. Feel like your work presentations aren’t all they could be? How about a public speaking class! Looking to get in shape over the summer? Give water aerobics a try! Find the class for you and enroll online today – it’s the most important thing you can do to Save City College!
Temprano also noted the divisive infighting which sometimes finds its way into the local political arena. He hopes to be one of the calming voices of reason within the community. "I pride myself on being able to work well with others and with being a mediator between sides who are fighting over things that don't really matter."
It's important, Temprano feels, for activists to keep their eyes on the prize. "We need to do our best to come together, to work together, and to not get stuck in the mud."
The candidate hopes that others will join him in helping to keep the school alive and vibrant.
"City College," he concludes "needs people to be enthusiastic about it."
Temprano is running against incumbent Alex Randolph and community organizer Wendy Aragon for the board of trustees position. Stay tuned for more coverage of this and other local races in the coming weeks and months.
