Bakersfield College communications professor, Dr. Chris Cruz-Boone, announced on July 27th that she will be running for the Bakersfield City School District Board of Trustees Area 3.
“The primary reason I am running for the board is to be an advocate for my children and the other families in my community,” Cruz-Boone stated. “This is the moment for my candidacy because during this crisis we have an opportunity to shift focus away from keeping sick kids at schools for attendance dollars and testing.”
Cruz-Boone was born in Bakersfield and raised by her mother who only had her as a young teen. After finishing high school, she became a first-generation college graduate and continued to earn her Doctorate in Education.
She is also married to her husband of 18 years and they have two young children as well as their dog named Rupert Giles.
Her decision to come to Bakersfield College in 2017 was driven by her passion for growth in the education system in rural areas of Kern County.
She shared, “I am the faculty lead for Early College because I believe it is a program that cracks open the school to prison pipeline.”
Not only did she teach at Bakersfield College’s main campus, but she also taught courses all around Kern.
“Over the last three years, I have taught college courses at Panorama Campus, Southwest, South Kern Job Spot, McFarland, Arvin, Shafter, and Delano,” she mentioned.
Cruz-Boone also added, “Last year I completed a community college faculty fellowship at Stanford University and have served on state and national education boards including the CTA Early Childhood committee.”
If elected, Cruz-Boone’s goal is to bring light to topics involving higher education, the importance of the arts, and especially social justice. This entails preparing students for not only their studies but the workforce, learning discipline, and taking action for equality.
“I will fight for social justice. To date, I am the only candidate running for the BCSD school board that has identified social and racial justice as a core value of my platform,” Cruz-Boone stated. “That we will all say the names of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Tamir Rice, Ramiro Villegas, and more.”
Dr. Cruz-Boone is encouraging fellow students and readers to change their voting status online.