Gonzalez-Hoy, Garibaldi win WCCUSD trustee seats without challengers

Demetrio Gonzalez-Hoy will serve a third term on the West Contra Costa Unified School District Board of Education. At the same time, Caitlin Garibaldi will join the board for the first time after neither drew an opponent for the November 3 election.

Both are the only qualified candidates for the district’s two open trustee seats, Areas 4 and 5, according to Contra Costa County’s certified candidate list. Neither race will appear on the ballot, and both will be sworn in without anyone having voted for them.

WCCUSD Trustee Areas · Grandview Independent

Grandview Independent · Election '26

WCCUSD Trustee Areas

The trustees, area by area: current members and those elected but not yet sworn in

5 trustee areas

Four of the district’s five trustee seats have now changed hands or stayed put without a contested vote over the last two election cycles. Jamela Smith-Folds and Cinthia Hernandez both ran unopposed in Areas 1 and 3 in 2024.

The one exception was close. Challenger Guadalupe Enllana unseated incumbent Otheree Christian in Area 2 that year, 6,470 votes to 5,297, according to the county’s Statement of Votes by Precinct. It remains the only competitive trustee race WCCUSD has seen in years.

Gonzalez-Hoy acknowledged that other community members had considered challenging him before ultimately stepping back.

"I know there were community members who considered running for this seat, and I do not take lightly the fact that they ultimately chose to place their trust in me to continue this work," he wrote in a Facebook post.

The United Teachers of Richmond, which endorsed both candidates, used similar language in an Aug. 14 email to members.

"Demetrio Gonzalez Hoy has been reelected to the WCCUSD Board of Education, and Caitlin Garibaldi has been elected to represent Trustee Area 5," union President Francisco Ortiz wrote. "Both were elected by acclamation."

Gonzalez-Hoy, a former bilingual teacher who has served two terms on the board, traced his commitment to public schools back to his own experience as a student.

"I came to the United States from Puebla, Mexico, as an English learner at the age of 14. Teachers helped change the course of my life," he wrote on his campaign site.

He named strong schools, fiscal responsibility, support for educators and a stronger voice for families as his priorities for a third term.

Garibaldi, a Fairmont Elementary parent entering her first term, pledged not to let the district coast on the programs families rely on.

"I am fighting for no cuts to the programs our kids depend on... We need someone who is going to show up, speak up, and fight back," she said in a video posted to Instagram.

She said she will spend the fall campaigning for Measure V and Proposition 3.

Areas 1, 2 and 3 return to the ballot in 2028. Areas 4 and 5 will not be contested again until 2030.

A tax that cannot skip the ballot

Unlike the trustee races, Measure V, the district’s parcel tax renewal, cannot be settled by default. Special taxes require a two-thirds vote under state law.

Measure V would continue the district’s existing 7.2-cent-per-square-foot parcel tax for nine more years, with no rate increase. It would raise roughly $10.2 million annually for academics, counseling, libraries, athletics, and teacher retention.

WCCUSD’s own pollster, Godbe Research, surveyed 709 likely voters and found support at 65.8 percent, about a point short of what is needed. District officials say a loss would trigger roughly $8 million in cuts.

Ortiz’s email also urged support for Proposition 3, a statewide measure that extends an existing tax on high earners to fund K-12 and community college education.

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