DOWNEY - The Downey Unified Board of Education election is starting to take shape, as the first candidate for Trustee Area 1 has made their intentions known.

Tyrone Conde, 38, is vice president of marketing at Downey Federal Credit Union. He is married to his wife, Veronica, and has two children ages 7 and 9 who attend Maude Price Elementary School.

Conde will make a bid for the seat currently held by longtime board member and current vice president Martha Sodetani, who announced last week that she will not seek reelection come November.

“The more I thought about it, the more I thought, ‘Hey, this is an opportunity to really have a say in what my kids’ education, how it’s defined, the approach to it, the vision behind it, and the mission behind it,” said Conde.

Trustee Area 1 represents northwest Downey.

Besides his kids’ enrollment, much of Conde’s prior experience with the district comes from previous collaboration with Downey Federal.

Conde says that he gives a lot of credit to the School Board and Superintendent Dr. John Garcia for being “good at what they do,” though he adds that there is “room for improvement” surrounding students and mental health.

“I think it’s used a lot as a cliché now-a-days to be honest with you, ‘Mental health, mental health, mental health.’ But what does that mean on the ground – boots on the ground – for the kids to have ‘safe spaces,’ another phrase that has been used incorrectly I think,” said Conde. “There are a lot of kids who need that space to be able to unplug. I grew up in a time where that didn’t exist, but that doesn’t mean that we didn’t need it, and we didn’t know at the time that we needed it, that we could have benefited from it.”

Conde added that kids need a safe space “more than ever.”

“Sometimes, the kids need to be able to step into a room and just think about nothing. Sometimes they may need to talk problems out,” said Conde. “How can we expect them to really process what a teacher is trying to teach if their mind is on their home life, if their mind is on their next meal, if their mind is somewhere else that, unfortunately due to their life circumstances it’s taken them to.

“I’m a big believer in that. I’m not saying that the school district doesn’t do that now, but I do believe there is an opportunity to scale that more.”

Conde also believes that the district could do a better job promoting its STEAM programing.

“Does the district do a great job of offering programs? Yes. Can it do more? Yes,” said Conde. “My third grader this past year, he comes home super excited because he just found out that there’s a robotics team at Price. I asked him, ‘Why didn’t you join?’ This is at the end of the school year. He says ‘I didn’t know about it, why didn’t you tell me?’ I said ‘I didn’t know about it.’ He was eligible, we just didn’t know about it.

“Did we miss it? Maybe, possibly because they do a pretty good job of communicating with parents, but we missed it…there’s no blame to go around, it was just missed.”

Conde added that “Step one is making sure you have the programs, step two is making sure that kids take advantage of the programs.”

Conde also emphasized critical thinking skills.

“Right now, the district uses the phrase ‘college and career ready.’ That’s a great phrase, but it’s a phrase,” said Conde. “How do we actually take that and put it in action?”

“The District has done a fantastic job of putting together programs, the adult school, giving people the opportunity to be ready for their next phase in life. Me personally, I think the next phase of that is day-to-day life…

“Obviously curriculums are what they are, but coming from the credit union’s perspective, or coming from the financial side as well, being able to make those decisions; if you’re going to school, and being able to break down a tuition bill, being able to break down a gas bill, being able to break down certain life expenses… all that stuff, I think we can do more. I think we can do more in getting some of these kids – as a part of the education process – I think a little bit of an emphasis on that aspect of things can be really helpful for our kids.”

Conde already has endorsements from all seven members of the school board.

“Tyrone has volunteered by my side with many organizations and he is a friend whom I know would be a wonderful addition to the Board of Trustees,” Sodetani said in a press release. 

The election will take place Nov. 8.