Volunteering led McCall to school board
New HBCSD Board Member Stephen McCall in front of Hermosa View, which his children attend. Courtesy photo
Stephen McCall had every intention of voting for Measure Q. But, amid the demands of work and children, the hours of that November Tuesday back in 2014 slipped through his hands, and he never made it to the polling place. The bond measure, which would have raised funds to address overcrowding in the Hermosa Beach City School District, fell 32 votes short of the 55 percent threshold required for school bonds.
Fast forward four years. The district is working on projects financed by Measure S, a school facilities bond that, in the summer of 2016, Hermosa voters did pass. And Stephen McCall has been sworn in as a member of the HBCSD Board of Education.
McCall took his seat last week, becoming the board’s newest member through an unopposed November election. (McCall replaced the retiring Carleen Beste; incumbents Maggie Bove-LaMonica and Jen Cole are also beginning new terms.) McCall will have little time to ease into the position: at his second meeting, on Jan. 9, the board will take up the EIR for North School, one of the projects called for under Measure S and the subject of considerable concern from some Hermosa residents.
McCall, however, does not come across as nervous or intimidated. He has atoned for his absence from the voting booth during Measure Q by becoming one of the district’s most visible and tireless volunteers. Colleagues laud his capacity for strategic thinking and organizational energy. And, though he is eager to point out all the challenges HBCSD faces, his personality tends toward blessing counting: he is optimistic about the role that Hermosa’s schools play in the community, and about what the district can accomplish.
“I get to live in this community where I get to walk my kids to school. I get to volunteer in classes, to be engaged,” he said. “We have a very special community. It really is the ‘best little beach city.’ There’s a reason why people want to come to Hermosa, and a big part of why people will come is the schools.”
McCall’s British accent may well be the first thing people notice after meeting him. (He deploys an acute “haitch” when annunciating the first letter of the abbreviation for Hermosa Beach Education Foundation, a pronunciation cited by the British Library as embodying the gradual decoupling of status and speech in the United Kingdom.) But he feels so strongly connected to his adopted hometown that he has a joke at the ready to explain the inevitable question.
“When people ask me where I’m from I say, ‘Hermosa Beach.’ Well, technically, I’m from northeast Hermosa: sometimes the accent shifts when you cross Sepulveda,” McCall deadpans.
McCall and his wife lived in Hermosa for several years without children, then moved to Seattle so he could take a job with Microsoft. But they missed the South Bay, and returned to raise a family. Having children changed the way he saw Hermosa, McCall said. Schools and parks that once blended into the background became the first thing on his mind. McCall’s two children now attend Hermosa View.
Christine Tasto met McCall while they were in line registering their kids for kindergarten. They got to know one another better through the Hermosa Educational Renewal Organization, or HERO, which sprang up in the wake of the defeat of Measure Q and helped organize support for Measure S.
“He knows how to be concise and clear, and explain how these issues impact not just one school, but the whole community,” Tasto said of McCall.
Measure S was spurred by the fact that HBCSD has been significantly overenrolled for several years, and that many students attend class in either temporary trailers or converted classrooms, such as a library or teacher’s lounge. District enrollment is projected to decline over the next five years, but will remain more than 200 students over the combined intended capacity of View and Hermosa Valley.
McCall initially came to the facilities issue from the perspective of a concerned parent, but as Tasto mentioned, began to treat it as an issue of municipal concern. He found what he termed a “perception versus reality” gap: people knew Hermosa’s schools were well regarded, and thus presumed that all was fine.
“I was going around and knocking on doors, and people would say, ‘No, we’ve got great schools.’ But when was the last time the community looked at roofs of school buildings, or has seen children in what was formerly a library?” McCall said.
After Measure S passed, McCall began working with HBEF. Carol Kluthe, the foundation’s president, said McCall’s experience in technology and marketing were critical to the group’s fundraising success. (The group recently exceeded $1 million in annual donations for the first time ever.)
HBEF plays an especially prominent role in Hermosa’s schools because of HBCSD’s relatively low level of state financial support. Under California’s Local Control Funding Formula, which directs state education dollars to districts with higher shares of students that are English learners or eligible for free-and-reduced-price lunches, Hermosa is among the lowest-funded districts in the state.
Kluthe said that the experience of scraping for extra money with HBEF is likely to make McCall scrupulous at budget time, and he has said that funding issues will be among his top priorities. On the day he was interviewed from this story, McCall had just come from coffee with Assemblymember Al Muratsuchi, who represents the South Bay and last year introduced AB 2808, which would have significantly boosted funding for schools throughout the state. (The bill died in committee, but it or a similar bill may be reintroduced in the coming session in Sacramento.)
Much of this, he recognizes, will be out of his hands. McCall instead sees his job on the school board as being the one who asks “Why?” and trying to guide the conversation. McCall’s personal “why,” his reason for taking the board job, is centered on the transformational power of a good education. He talks excitedly about the promise of technology in the district, and has lofty thoughts about what eighth graders can walk away with.
“It’s not just reading and math and science for him, but music and being able to have that class once a week, and having a librarian there to help them pick out a book: the overall experience of having all of those enriching programs to help kids be better citizens,” Kluthe said.