UPDATE: Cecilia Aguinaga will not be running for the SAUSD School Board after all this year.  She was considering it but family committments are taking precedence this time around and she is concerned that too many candidates are running.  I ran into her tonight at the fundraiser for Santa Ana City Council candidate Eric Alderete.  Aguinaga received a nice ovation when Council Member Sal Tinajero introduced her to the audience.  If she runs in 2014 she will surely be a top candidate for the SAUSD School Board.

My two favorite Cecilias have pulled papers to run for the SAUSD School Board.  Cecilia Aguinaga and Cecilia Iglesias are both political veterans and more importantly they are moms – and our School Board definitely needs more moms!

Aguinaga almost won back in 2006, losing to Audrey Noji by less than a thousand votes according to Smart Voter.  She ran again in 2008 and was just barely edged by Valerie Amezcua, by 2.5% of the vote, according to Smart Voter.  This time I think she can pull it off.

Aguinaga’s bio is quite lengthy:

• Occupation: Retired School Police Coordinator
• Member, Orange County Vector Control District
• Vice-Chair Human Relation Commission
• President of the Santa Ana Lions Club (First woman presiddent in the 85 years history of Santa Ana Lions Club)
• Secretary of United Mexican American Veterans Association
• Memebership Vice-Chair PTA Council of Santa Ana
• Board member of the Latino Young Leader Intitute
• Board member of ROP (Regional Outreach Program for students who do not wish to follow higher education)

Cecilia was born in Jalisco, México and immigrated to the United States in 1978. She has been a resident of Santa Ana for more than 30 years. Cecilia and her husband Armando have two sons and a daughter; Ramsey who is a financing adviser, Allan who graduated from the Culinary Arts Institute of California/Orange County specializing in international fine cuisine , and Sylvia who graduated from Berkeley University with a degree in Psychology and Public Health. Cecilia and her husband own a business in Santa Ana.

After helping her husband to manage the family business, Cecilia decided to get involved in the educational system to support families and their children to be successful in school. She began to work for the educational system at the Santa Ana Unified School District as an Instructional Assistant at Hoover Elementary she was promoted to Bilingual Special Education Paraprofessional at Santa Ana High School, for seven years then she promoted as a Bilingual Community Worker. Due to her dedication to the students and parents, She was offered the job as a School Police Parent Coordinator at the District office where she worked for five years alone with the Santa Ana Police Department to help parents and students who were in gangs, drugs, and truant. Cecilia retired from the Santa Ana Unified School District in 2009.

Click here to read Aguinaga’s current bio.

Iglesias ran for Congress in 2010, as an Independent.  She got almost 8,000 votes according to Smart Voter.  You can learn more about her views here.

Iglesias is a product of the Public School of Santa Ana. Obtained an AA from Santa Ana College and a B.S. of Human Services from Cal State Fullerton. CEO and President of Santa Ana Family Empowerment non profit organization for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing. 19 years of experience of public service with Orange County Social Services.

Both of these ladies are immigrants who came to this country, worked hard and have become model citizens.  I am very pleased that our voters will now have real choices in the SAUSD School Board race.  I have personally endorsed both of these candidates.

Will I run?  At this point probably not, but if either of these ladies pulls out then yes I will enter the race.  Otherwise I will do what I can to help Aguinaga and Iglesias to get elected in November.