Q&A with Tulare County Board of Education Area 2 candidate Debby Holguin

TULARE COUNTY – This November, contests for city council races, school board elections and local bond measures will be listed lower on the ballot, but they are not any lower in importance. 

Local elections are often decided by just a handful of votes, highlighting the impact of each individual’s voice in the community. In Tulare County, residents who want to see changes in how the Tulare County Office of Education (TCOE) guides local school districts will have the chance to vote on board of education candidates promising to be champions of education.

The Tulare County Board of Education governs the county office of educations through adopting policies and procedures that ensure student safety across the county and implementing programs to support teachers, administrators and students in the local school districts. It is made up of seven residents elected by geographic area to staggered four-year terms. 

This year, board members from Area 2, 3, 5 and 6 are up for election; however, the representatives for Area 3 and 6 — Tom Link and Chris Reed, respectively — will not appear on the November ballot and have been appointed in-lieu of an election because they were the only eligible candidates to file for the race. 

In Area 2, incumbent and current BOE Vice President Debby Holguin is running against challenger Ruben Macareno in a rematch of the November 2020 election. In 2020, Holguin was elected with 50.04% of the vote over Macareno. Holguin won by just 12 votes, showing just how influential every vote is in a local election. 

Area 2 serves most of the northeast section of Tulare County and some voters within its boundaries reside in Fresno County. The trustee area covers portions of Exeter Unified School District and Visalia Unified School District, as well as Cutler-Orosi Joint Unified, Farmersville Unified, Lindsay Unified, Monson-Sultana Joint Union, Outside Creek, Stone Corral, Strathmore Union, Three Rivers Union and Woodlake Unified.

California voters can use the Secretary of State’s online voter registration tool at registertovote.ca.gov to register to vote or check their status. Voters in Tulare County can use an online district lookup tool through their respective county elections office to enter their address and find what Congressional, state and county districts they live in.

Holguin spoke with Mineral King Publishing about her background and her goals for the next four years if she is elected Nov. 5. Interview responses have been edited for clarity and brevity.

Q: What is your background?

HOLGUIN: My name is Deborah, D-E-B-O-R-A-H, but I prefer to go by Debby, D-E-B-B-Y. My dad gave me the  D-E-B-B-Y when I was in kindergarten, because I was one of five Debby’s, and me and the teacher had a disagreement, because if I couldn’t be Debby number one, I wasn’t going to answer. So my father came up with a solution. So that’s why I go by Debby with a Y. 

My background, where do I start? I’ve been in Woodlake all except one year of my life and education. I love Woodlake. If I had anywhere else to live, I wouldn’t have the first clue as to where to even look because Woodlake is more than just where I live. It’s my home, and I care about my old neighbors, my young neighbors, my current neighbors, you get that closeness that you don’t get in a big city. … My two children are gifts. 

My grandmother always said they were gifts from heaven, and she was right. It’s not easy being a parent, being a working parent, being a working parent with active kids and a husband in law enforcement, because you can’t plan your life for him to be there to take care of the kids at certain times and stuff, because their life changes all the time. 

I was in the medical field at the hospital, so both of my kids grew up with parents that had 24/7 jobs, 365 but I think that’s why they’re so organized now in their adult life, because they grew up having to be organized, to do things. … We come from a military family. … That’s the majority of my life right there. The three people that I just mentioned.

I graduated from Woodlake, eighth grade and high school. I went to COS. I went there, … if you add up all my years probably (for) about four, but I’ve never gotten my AA degree. My specialty in life was the medical field. I worked at Kaweah Delta, I’ve worked at Tulare District (Hospital). I’ve worked at Sierra (View Medical Center) and I was in Adventist Health. So I worked at Tulare, and I worked at Hanford and I worked in Selma. 

I’ve had various jobs from admitting supervisor to the medical records department. I did utilization review at Kaweah, but my pride and joy job was being a certified coding specialist. … That job, I loved. I just loved being a part of it. I loved working with the people that I did because to me, a person became a patient, not a number, and I got to tell their story by translating it. 

When I retired, yes, I missed it, but when my kids were growing up, anything that they were in I was in. … During COVID, I was so sad because I couldn’t sit in my backyard and listen to the kids at F.J. White (Learning Center) or I could (not) hear the ones from the middle school, just hearing them out there playing.

It’s a satisfaction that I get knowing that I’m making decisions that are a part of who’s going to take care of me in the future. And I’m a very firm believer that you should enjoy childhood, because being a grown up is serious work. 

Q: Who is supporting/endorsing your campaign, and who are the major funders of your campaign?

HOLGUIN: It’s not applicable because, well, Tulare County, we’re not one of the richest. We’re rural and getting someone to be in charge of doing my campaigns, I like to think that through my years of experience, the things that I’ve accomplished should speak for themselves, and asking people to donate money to me, I would rather they donate it to the schools. 

So that’s my platform on that. I do my own campaigning and by voice of experience. If you want to donate something, donate to the PTA, donate to whatever sports, donate to the school, even if it’s just your time.

Q: What do you hope to change or accomplish in the upcoming term?

HOLGUIN: I don’t know that I would change anything, because I’m on a very experienced board, and I know that each one of my fellow board members is a caring person, and they care about the kids Tulare County-wise, not just in their district. 

Our main job is policy and procedures for the other schools that are out there, the 43 schools that are in Tulare County. You change with the times, and I feel that change, if you’re open minded on the board, then change, when it happens, you’re able to give your experience in exchange for making the best decision when something’s new that needs to be implemented. 

One of the projects that we changed (is) we have a monitoring system here at Tulare County that has gone universal. It’s the monitoring for when there’s an open shooter on campus. We started tha0, we have that, it’s very successful. And then online for suicide, which when I first was on the board, wasn’t there, that was a change. People finally realized we needed to do something. 

My future goals there at the county: I am currently Vice President on the board of education there, and if I get reelected, I will in a year get to be president after all these years. I look forward to that.

Q: What are the top three issues facing Tulare County school districts right now? What would you do to address those issues?

HOLGUIN: The three issues that I feel is keeping a balanced budget, but we also help our schools keep a balanced budget, and it’s hard with the state economy and when you’re promised money and it doesn’t always come through from the federals or the state. Helping the schools have the supplies that the teachers need to teach and do their job, that to me, that is a lot, because sometimes you’re working with no money, and sometimes you’re working with money that is specified to be used in only one area. 

Q: What does the role of a board trustee look like to you, and how would you fulfill those duties?

HOLGUIN: The board trustees, like I said, our main job is policies and procedures and making sure that they are followed through on. Like when we do expulsions, when a student has an issue at their local level, then they come to us to appeal it. And I know, since I’ve been on the board, every board member there, we have rules that we go by, but we take each student as a student, an individual, and we apply the best decision that needs to be made for them or the school or the other fellow students.

To fulfill a Tulare County Office of Education (trustee) area that you’ve been elected to is you go out, and I’ve gone to every graduation for every school that I’m under. I like to be invited to events that are local for the school because you’re seeing the work that these teachers have done, and a lot of it isn’t an eight hour job, they spend a lot of their time.

The rewards that these kids get, for them, they’re lifelong achievements. As a board member, I like to say that I’m on the board first, and my area is why I’m there. I’m representing every student, every parent that is in my jurisdiction. But I also like to think that decisions that I make affect all the kids of Tulare County.

Q: Anything else to add? 

HOLGUIN: I forgot to tell you one thing that I do in my life that is very important to me. I am a member of the Good Shepherd Parish, which is the church in Visalia, the Catholic churches, the big one out there. St, Charles, St. Mary, Holy Family and St. Thomas in Goshen. I am in charge of all the linens, the sacred linens.

When I first started that job, there were only five women that did all three churches. And my idea, which I just now have come to have completed, is (we) went from like four or five ladies to where there’s now 17 of us that are actively involved in making sure that the linens, the priests’ robes, the altar servers, all that is presentable and clean. And I love my job. 

That’s my second job that I love the most in retirement. … The reason that I am involved in the church, because I also teach catechism, is the educational part of the church. I didn’t realize it took 10 years to be a priest and the educational requirements behind it. Ah, here’s Debby: I’ve got to support those people that want to be a priest, because they go to school for 10 years after high school. So that’s how education, again, is inflicted in my life, and I have to support it.