Businessman Jim Glantz’s name will appear on the Nov. 8 ballot for Capistrano Unified School District Trustee Area 4, after he received many requests from parents to run for the seat.
“I’ve been wanting to help kids and my community for a long time,” Glantz told The Epoch Times.
With a master’s degree in Education, a half-dozen years as an elementary teacher, a Ph.D. in business, and as the owner of a business that specializes in developing corporate leadership, he said he is well qualified for the position.
“My background is well suited to be a trustee because I know how businesses are run,” he said. “I know how decisions affect teachers and administrators.”
If elected he said he would focus on curriculum transparency, reformed sex education, more vocational programs and removing critical race theory from classrooms.
Knowing the school curriculum, as a trustee, is also important to Glantz.
“As a [former] English teacher, I’m very comfortable with reading the books and understanding the value of weighing in on the curriculum,” he said.
The biggest issue, he said, are student-assigned books that rewrite American history through the lens of today’s social justice movement.
“The essence of these books is to say that America is a racist nation, and I strongly disagree with that,” he said.
He said he’s concerned about such concepts as critical race theory going undetected by district officials in student’s schoolbooks.
“The curriculum is one of the only things we have a strong influence over,” he said. “It takes a trustee who’s willing to spend the time to read the books ... you won’t know by the title because the book isn’t going to say critical race theory.”
Vocational programs for high school students, such as culinary arts, computer science or working with machines, are also important to Glantz.
“Not every kid needs or wants to go to college,” he said.
When he was teaching, he said, he had one student with attention deficit disorder that was so hyper he allowed him to run around the building to burn off some energy.
And now he’s the number two chef under Wolfgang Puck,” Glantz said.
In his free time, Glantz said he enjoys playing soccer, riding motorcycles, and traveling. During his years working in schools in the late 1990s and early 2000s, he said he also coached five boys and girls soccer teams to championships.
Glantz said he moved to Laguna Niguel when the pandemic started, and he and his clients started meeting online, so he left his office in Los Angeles and headed south.
“I would drive by, and I always thought it was so gorgeous,” he said.
He has endorsements from Ken Williams and Lisa Sparks on the Orange County Board of Education, Laguna Niguel Mayor Pro Tem Sandy Rains, and former president of Capistrano Unified Anna Bryson, among others.
His opponents are Gary Pritchard, a community college dean, and software developer Darin Patel.
Area 4 includes Hidden Hills, John Malcom, Moulton, George White, and Laguna Niguel elementary schools as well as Dana Hills High School.
