Gisela Contreras

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Gisela Contreras

Nonpartisan

Elections and appointments

Last election

November 5, 2019

Personal

Religion

Christian

Contact

Campaign Facebook

Gisela Contreras ran for election to the Santa Ana Unified Board of Education in California. Contreras lost in the general election on November 5, 2019.

Contreras completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2019. Click here to read the survey answers.

Biography

Gisela Contreras was born in Mexico City, Mexico.

Elections

2019

See also: Santa Ana Unified School District, California, elections (2019)

General election

General election for Santa Ana Unified Board of Education

Carolyn Torres defeated David Benavides, Gisela Contreras, and Cecilia Aguinaga in the general election for Santa Ana Unified Board of Education on November 5, 2019.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Carolyn Torres (Nonpartisan)	46.9	4,924
		David Benavides (Nonpartisan)	30.7	3,226
		Gisela Contreras (Nonpartisan)	13.4	1,406
		Cecilia Aguinaga (Nonpartisan)	8.9	937

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	There were no incumbents in this race. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 10,493
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
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Campaign themes

2019

Ballotpedia survey responses

See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection

Gisela Contreras completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2019. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Contreras' responses. Candidates are asked three required questions for this survey, but they may answer additional optional questions as well.

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Who are you? Tell us about yourself.

I am married to my high school sweetheart Paul Contreras. We have been married for 20 years and we have been together 27 years. Together we have three wonderful children, ages 19, 18 and 13. I was born in Mexico City. Our family immigrated to the US in 1977. I grew up in a low income, poor part of Santa Ana daily surrounded by drugs, graffiti and gang violence. I am thankful I had both my loving parents that took us to church regularly and instilled wonderful family values. I am currently employed working as a commercial insurance broker. I have experience in this field for 23 years. In 2-18 I obtained my paralegal certificate from UCI which is ABA accredited and proudly served as a paralegal intern at the Orange County District Attorney's office. I have served my community on the Parks and Recreation commission and through that service I realized I needed to be more involved. I am a concerned parent and resident of Santa Ana that wants to see real change in our education system. We want our students to thrive and get higher quality education and more programs so they can do more in life and be prepared for life.

Please list below 3 key messages of your campaign. What are the main points you want voters to remember about your goals for your time in office?

• We need higher quality education programs and less students per class. More resources need to be allocated to students and teachers.
• School choice is important. Do not limit educational choice for our families. Give parental rights back to families regarding certain Sex Ed materials that are not age appropriate in CHYA materials.
• Character development programs are vital to change the foundation of our community and the life choices our students will make in growing up in our city.

What areas of public policy are you personally passionate about?

school choice is important. They should not limit public charter schools. AB 1505 and AB1506

parental rights to opt out of comprehensive sexual education that is not age appropriate AB329
not allowing Planned Parenthood to teach our students without parental consent for minor children
not allowing medical treatment of any type including abortions, hormone therapy without parental consent for minor children AB499

Senate Bill 419 recently passed where it prohibits willful defiant children from getting suspended.

What is the first historical event that happened in your lifetime that you remember? How old were you at the time?

A church next to where we lived came to bring us a truck full of Christmas presents one year. I was probably 5-6 years old. We had lots of toys and food and candy stockings. The truck was a blue Toyota and I will never forget how excited and happy I was that we were all getting so many presents. It was a real miracle Christmas event for our family. We lived in a small shed behind a welding shop with my uncles family. it was 8 of them and 7 of us. That was an amazing memory I can never forget.

What is the primary job of a school board member in your view?

To make sure students have the best quality education possible and make sure parents are being heard and concerns are being addressed and taken into account.

Note: Ballotpedia reserves the right to edit Candidate Connection survey responses. Any edits made by Ballotpedia will be clearly marked with [brackets] for the public. If the candidate disagrees with an edit, he or she may request the full removal of the survey response from Ballotpedia.org. Ballotpedia does not edit or correct typographical errors unless the candidate's campaign requests it.

See also

2019 Elections

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Government

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Newsletters

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External links

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