Community/Labor Organizer Ensuring a Voice for Working Families

Hello everyone!

I am so grateful for the support I received in November 2018 from South Inglewood, Lennox, Del Aire, Hawthorne, to Lawndale, we won with over 49% of the vote and less than $2,000! The victory against a 10+ year incumbent proved that our communities value honesty and being shown respect from our elected officials versus saying yes to everything, being absent and failing to voice out what our students and families are asking of us. Since then, I’ve worked humbly and diligently so every dollar that gets spent is rightfully accounted for and to bring our communities to understand what a school board is and what it can be. I’ve done this with a clear message to everyone, our schools deserve to meet the needs of our students, our educators and hardworking families.

During my first year as a school board member at 22 in 2019 I dove right in as a School Board Clerk where I was tasked to extensively research any financial items on our monthly agenda. This role pushed me to extensively research board items past my time as the board’s clerk because the weight I give to these items shouldn’t be dependent on the role within the board when all board members are voted in just the same. Between 2020 to 2022 I feel as though COVID-19 stole years away from me to be physically on the ground as a school board member with our students, but it didn’t take me away from being a board member, daughter, neighbor and community advocate serving in other ways. At the beginning of the pandemic I urged my board and superintendent at the time to close our schools before our County made it a requirement, I understood the importance of keeping our students, educators and families safe. Since then I’ve worked with various mutual aid groups to provide resources for our community and currently run a food distribution to feed families across our community. Now as this new election cycle is here, I want to continue to assist our students and families and continue the work I didn’t get a chance to finish. 

I am humbly asking for your invaluable contribution to help me represent my community at the Centinela Valley Union High School District.

With your help, we can give our schools the importance they deserve, the education that all students need and have the right to have, the health and resources they should have. With your help we can ensure the transparency that we should have in our schools. Because this campaign is for my people, these investments are for my people, this opportunity is for them to know that they have the right to fair and transparent options. Any donation (accepted by people not by corporations) will be for: signs, literature, sending campaign announcements, food for our volunteers. Nothing more and nothing less, because this campaign will only be possible with the help of the people.

With a lot of love, and I remind you to vote on Tuesday, November 8th,

Sincerely,

Estefany Alejandra Castañeda