Michelle Gates (California)

Michelle Gates

Nonpartisan

National Elementary School District Governing Board

Tenure

2020 - Present

Term ends

2028

Years in position

5

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Report an officeholder change

Elections and appointments

Last election

November 5, 2024

Education

High school

Christian School Of York

Bachelor's

Eastern Nazarene College, 1992

Graduate

Azusa Pacific University, 2008

Personal

Birthplace

York, PA

Religion

Christian

Profession

Educator

Contact

Campaign website

Campaign Facebook

Campaign Instagram

Michelle Gates is a member of the National Elementary School District Governing Board in California. She assumed office on December 11, 2020. Her current term ends on December 8, 2028.

Gates ran for re-election to the National Elementary School District Governing Board in California. She won in the general election on November 5, 2024.

Gates completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2024. Click here to read the survey answers.

Biography

Michelle Gates was born in York, Pennsylvania. She earned a high school diploma from the Christian School of York, a bachelor's degree from Eastern Nazarene College in 1992, a graduate degree from Azusa Pacific University in 2008, and a degree from the University of California, San Diego in 2014. Gates' career experience includes working as an educator, grant writer, editor, and secretary. She has been affiliated with the Southwest Teachers Association, the South Bay Union School District, and the Martin Luther King Jr. Community Choir of San Diego.

Elections

2024

See also: National Elementary School District, California, elections (2024)

General election

General election for National Elementary School District Governing Board (2 seats)

Cindy Lopez and incumbent Michelle Gates defeated Maria Miranda and incumbent Rocina Lizarraga in the general election for National Elementary School District Governing Board on November 5, 2024.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔	Submit photo	Cindy Lopez (Nonpartisan)	30.5	6,400
✔		Michelle Gates (Nonpartisan)	27.8	5,841
	Submit photo	Maria Miranda (Nonpartisan)	21.6	4,544
		Rocina Lizarraga (Nonpartisan)	20.1	4,223

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	Incumbents are bolded and underlined. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 21,008
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.
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Endorsements

Gates received the following endorsements.

• San Diego County Democratic Party

2020

See also: National Elementary School District, California, elections (2020)

General election

General election for National Elementary School District Governing Board (2 seats)

Michelle Gates and Rocina Lizarraga defeated incumbent Barbara Ann Avalos, Zachary Francisco Gomez, and incumbent Brian Clapper in the general election for National Elementary School District Governing Board on November 3, 2020.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Michelle Gates (Nonpartisan)	31.8	8,617
✔		Rocina Lizarraga (Nonpartisan)	20.7	5,602
	Submit photo	Barbara Ann Avalos (Nonpartisan)	19.9	5,384
	Submit photo	Zachary Francisco Gomez (Nonpartisan)	15.2	4,116
	Submit photo	Brian Clapper (Nonpartisan)	12.3	3,338

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	Incumbents are bolded and underlined. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 27,057
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team.

Endorsements

To view Gates' endorsements in the 2020 election, please click here.

Campaign themes

2024

Ballotpedia survey responses

See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection

Michelle Gates completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2024. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Gates' responses.

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Who are you? Tell us about yourself.

I am a K-8 public school teacher who is currently teaching in the classroom and have been teaching for 18 years. I am a 22-year resident of National City and have sent all three of my children to National School District schools. I serve on my teachers' union executive board where I am secretary and PAC treasurer. I am a wife, mom, grandma, teacher, Board Member, community choir member, volunteer, and friend. I believe in public schools and have committed my life and career to them. Public schools are the foundation of education in our country. Because we are entrusted with this foundation, our students deserve our best every day. In order to make that happen, we need educated and informed board members. As a teacher and member of my union executive board, I am intentionally and intimately involved at the District and site levels in order to best serve students and families. This carries over directly into my role as a school board member as I bring my teacher and union education and experience to my role as a Board Member in National School District. I intend to continue doing so in the next four years.

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?

• Support students, families, and staff with integrity Our NSD students deserve opportunities for growth - in academics, in career paths, in extracurricular choices. Their teachers and staff need to be supported with curriculum and resources that provide these opportunities and enhance what teachers are doing already in the classroom. I commit to looking for and supporting these opportunities as we look towards our students' futures. I will hold the district accountable for keeping its focus on student growth - in the classroom and in the budget.
• Guide collaboratively NSD students are supported by NSD staff and educators every day. In order to be at their best, teacher and staff voices are essential as they represent the students they work with. Other community groups and organizations work with our students daily, as well. Neighborhood volunteers, School Resource Officers, local businesses, Kitchenistas, and others work to enhance our students' safety and learning. I will listen to and incorporate these voices as I vote in support of student needs.
• Honor all with equity and respect NSD students represent multi-generational families with over 25 languages and various cultures and abilities present in our district. I have worked to provide our students with materials that represent them, as well as equipment and resources that allow every student to participate - whether through books in our libraries that reflect them or playgrounds that allow everyone to play with their friends. I will continue to push our district to honor each student's uniqueness and abilities while listening to their families as they speak for their students.

What areas of public policy are you personally passionate about?

Special Education and Intervention are essential areas that we need to enhance and support. Our teachers and aides do phenomenal work with their students who need learning support in these areas, but the state and federal government do not fiscally support us in the ways that schools have been promised. I have spoken directly with state Representatives and local Assemblymembers regarding this area and will continue to advocate for our students.
Student safety is another area of vital concern for me. Whether that safety is physical - security on campuses, relational - bullying prevention and intervention, academic - supporting so all grow and are successful, or personal - equity and respect regardless/because of who they are.

Who do you look up to? Whose example would you like to follow, and why?

My dad is a person of integrity and deep conviction. He holds himself to high standards and gives of his time and skills to others. He has taught me what it means to be a loving parent, a loyal and supportive spouse, and a committed person of faith.

What characteristics or principles are most important for an elected official?

Integrity - this covers many areas.

Personal integrity means that, when I say something, I hold to it and it is true. For instance, when I say that I am a teacher, I mean that I have the credentialing approved by the state, I have the education and continued professional development that enhances my skills, and I am currently in front of 130 students every day of the school year. I AM a teacher. It is not something I did at some time in the past, nor is it something I think I am because I sometimes work with kids.

Professional integrity means that I make decisions with wisdom and accountability to my role as a caretaker of the students in my district. This means that I keep myself informed of what is happening in our schools and what is influencing the district and our personnel and families.

What legacy would you like to leave?

I would like National School District to be an even more solid and respected district where teachers, staff, administration, and school board prioritize students so highly that their work is collaborative and collegial at all times. Focus on student needs must drive everything that we do - sometimes we lose sight of that when we doubt each other's intentions. If we truly prioritize our students, even when we disagree, we can work together in respect to do what is best for our students and their families.

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

I remember the Challenger Space Shuttle exploding. We were seated in the library at my school, watching the take-off on TV. I was 15 at the time.

What was your very first job? How long did you have it?

I was a hostess at a buffet restaurant, responsible for seating people and for running the cash register. I worked there for 2 summers before I started college and after my first year.

What was the last song that got stuck in your head?

Unfortunately, "The Itsy Bitsy Spider" got stuck in my head - I have a 1-year-old grandbaby.

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

A School Board member should, first and foremost, be committed to the students of the district and their success and growth as lifelong learners who will lead us in the future. This means that I sent my children to this school district because I believed National School District would prepare them for their next steps - and it did. One of my children is now a medical doctor, one is a business manager, and one is in college. National and its teachers and staff prepared them for that.

How would you support the diverse needs of your district’s students, faculty, staff, and community?

National School District has a beautifully wide range of students - multi-language speakers, newcomers to National City or the country, students living with extended family, students who are in the care of their parents - birth/foster/adopted/chosen, students for whom school is easy and for whom learning is a challenge. This is also the truth for our teachers, staff, and community.
Prioritizing access to school is essential for our district. For parents, this could mean language access or adaptive meeting times. I have voted to have translation services available at all meetings and have pushed for things like parent workshops to be at varying times to meet the needs of working parents. For students, this means adaptive and supportive curriculum and resources that encourages growth in all academic and interpersonal areas. I have been a part of the decisions that impact curriculum choice, provide adaptive playgrounds that enable all students to participate regardless of ability, and continue to look for resources that support Positive Behavior Intervention Support.

What principles drive your policies for safety in schools?

Students, families, teachers, and staff should NEVER be worried about coming to school. When an adult takes their student to school, they are entrusting their child to the individuals of that school - to protect them from harm, to teach them the academics they need to know to move forward in their education, to nurture their sense of self-worth and competency, and to build their character. Whether we are discussing bullying by a student who has targeted another child or an active shooter on campus, our students should not just feel safe but BE safe. Staff must be trained for quick response, which may mean teachers and staff carry panic buttons and are trained in de-escalation techniques. Students must be equipped to react quickly to teacher/staff direction and trust that their adults are acting for their care.

Tell us your favorite joke.

What did the monkey say when it backed into the fan? It won't be long now. (with love from my father-in-law, the king of Bad Dad Jokes)

What organizations or individuals have endorsed your campaign?

CSEA National #206, San Diego County Democratic Party, San Diego Democratic Education Alliance, San Diego Labor Democratic Club

What are your views on financial transparency and government accountability?

I whole-heartedly believe the district and community should know how and what we are spending. They should know our priorities as a district and as a board. I am willing to question any financial decision or suggestion to understand why the district leadership think it is important and necessary for our students. If I am not satisfied with the answers, I expect the administration to give me better ones or to go back to the drawing board and work to a better solution.

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.

2020

Michelle Gates completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2020. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Gates' responses.

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Who are you? Tell us about yourself.

My name is Michelle Gates. I moved to National City with my family in 2002. My children began attending National School District schools, and I began to volunteer. Because of one of their teachers welcoming my help in the classroom, I went back to school to become an elementary school teacher. This makes me AND my 3 children all alumni of our National School District schools. I currently teach 6th grade, which I thoroughly enjoy. Sixth grade truly is the best grade to teach! On top of being in the classroom, I am a teacher rep to our School Site Council and PTA, coordinate the yearbook for our school, and am an elected Rep-at-Large to my district's Teachers Union. I sing with the MLK Jr Community Choir of San Diego and assist in various community advocacy activities. I am running for NSD's School Board because I believe students deserve someone who will work to collaborate effectively with ALL those who say they are advocating on their behalf, someone who will call for accountability and transparency in our activities, and someone who believes there must be equity in what we teach, who we hire, and how we act.

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?

• All parties deserve equity - in curriculum, in staffing opportunities/development/voice, in district culture, in being heard and respected when bringing concerns to the School Board. Students, families, teachers, and staff should each be clearly heard and represented to the School Board, with not just the expectation of being heard but the right to demand change.
• A school district belongs to the community and should be meeting its needs, which can only be done adequately with full accountability and transparency. For this reason, I will push for all budgets, curriculum choices, and hiring practices to be done with clear knowledge of the Board and with transparency to the stakeholders of the district.
• The only way for a School Board to adequately know the needs of students is to collaborate with the parties who work with them daily. me. Teachers are highly educated individuals who work daily with the students the district is responsible for, classified employees see the intricate details of running the schools and providing students and families with what they need to thrive, and parents know their children's successes and frustrations and how the schools are meeting or not meeting their needs.

What areas of public policy are you personally passionate about?

National School District is embedded in a community that is higher multi-lingual, moved-here families. For this reason, any and all policies that affect our racially and culturally diverse community matter. Whether identifying immigration policies that hurt our students because they separate families or identifying racial profiling behaviors that threaten our community, these are of great concern to me. The current societal tensions show up in our students' lives here in National City in real and tangible ways.

National School District also has a higher percentage of low income families than other areas. This means equity is paramount. Our students face food scarcity and housing issues before we ever get into such things as computer and internet access. Policies that provide low-income housing and minimal rent increases are vital to our community. We also must protect and pursue our students' access to resources such as in-hand technology, including updated apps and software that help challenge them to innovate and grow as learners. If the school district doesn't advocate for them in this regard, their opportunities are limited regardless of their intellect and personal work ethic.

What characteristics or principles are most important for an elected official?

A passion to serve, the ability to listen, flexibility coupled with a core of steel and the ability to know when which one is needed.

School Board is about kids - straight up about kids. It's not about your own vanity, your desire to be recognized - if it is, find the door and use it. Students are our most vulnerable constituents - they can't speak for themselves, don't always know which choice would help them, often can't articulate their needs, and aren't used to having a voice that is heard. Instead, they are spoken for, talked about, have adults assume what is best. Some of that is just the nature of being a kid, but if the people who are supposed to be caring for them aren't actually understanding where they're coming from, how hard life and school really can be when you're young, then they're still stuck as being vulnerable to the whims of the adults around them. School Board members have to have a true heart for kids, believing that every decision we make impacts their lives and futures.

This means School Board members have to listen and learn in order to work effectively for students' well-being. Pre-conceived notions and opinions don't help here. Hearing from families and students, from teachers and aides, from the administration - all of that is necessary to make wise decisions for students. This means allotting time to each group in order to grasp what they are sharing and to be able to look into the issues that they need the School Board to address.

Flexibility combined with inflexibility - I know, it's contradictory. But as situations change, the ability to bend to meet and adjust to those situations is necessary - being bull-headed because you "think you know" won't help students. However, when fighting for and advocating for the needs of students, that core of strength MUST be present so that students are offered our best opportunities, not some wishy-washy, negotiated down less-than that won't meet their needs.

What legacy would you like to leave?

Growing up, I had a number of people who invested their time and care into me. They gave me people to talk to when I did the normal kid thing and thought my parents "just wouldn't understand." They came to special events at my school. They stopped what they were doing to check in on me. Some of these people are still in my life.

I want that type of legacy for myself. Because of my job and my spouse's job, not to mention my 3 children, I'm around "kids" ranging from 5 through to 30 pretty much all the time. We talk about everything from why S painted her rock turtle pink to L not fitting in with his family and their expectations to D being unaccepted by his parents because of being gay.

If I am remembered as a person who gave them a safe space, who they could come to in the middle of the good or the ugly, who they KNEW still cared about them no matter what, who helped them see themselves a little better, that's enough.

What was your very first job? How long did you have it?

My very first job was as a hostess at Family Time restaurant back home in Pennsylvania. I was responsible for balancing tables per waiter/waitress and for taking their check and payment. I "graduated" to be the weekend cashier, which was the last thing I wanted to do as it required me to work the register with its many buttons and nightly register balancing - I was afraid I would either break the machine or mess up the cash. However, it quickly became my favorite spot to work, as it required me to interact with many people, be on my toes all night, and work hard with intense focus. I worked at that restaurant for 3 summers during school and still have fond memories of it.

What is your favorite book? Why?

Barbara Kingsolver's "The Poisonwood Bible"

I read this book at a time when I was moving across country with my family - spouse and 2 small children. We were moving because my spouse had been offered a new job, one that he'd gone to a lot of school to get. In fact, 9 years of our lives had already been spent in moving to new places for either schooling or research. The book resonated with me for multiple reasons.

The mom in the story and I differed greatly as she felt her life choices and direction were constantly based on her husband's decision and her children's needs, not any of her own choice. This was not the same for me. Though I was in process of moving across the country due to my spouse's hiring, her view was NOT in fact my life. I thrived in my role as breadwinner while my spouse was at school, as Mom to my little people, as contributor to daily needs. I was, in no way, secondary as the mom in the story felt; in fact, my decisions were what opened up this possibility for next steps for our family.

Another reason I loved the book was the voices and perspectives Kingsolver wrote into it. Dad, who is brash, aggressive, and disagreeable actually NEVER gets a voice. He is only expressed and interpreted through the lenses of Mom and their daughters. I appreciated this for so many reasons. One is the acknowledgement that, even those who seem powerful in our lives, don't actually write our story. Two, at the end of the day, those so-called powerhouses only get the say we give them. Three, no matter how much they rant and rave, our lives are ours to write, ours to learn from, ours to live.

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

The primary job of a School Board member is to advocate vehemently for the best for the district's students. That could mean many different things. It can mean supporting teacher pay in order to draw the best candidates to the district. It can mean finding best practices to protect our custodial crew while they help clean and sanitize our schools during Covid. It can mean giving parents the opportunity to help effect change in policies by opening up committees to include their participation and guidance. It can mean pursuing various curriculum opportunities to reach all students and their differing needs. It can also mean banging on the doors of our state decision makers in Sacramento to pursue more finances directed towards education.

Advocating also means being knowledgeable about what's happening currently. Intentional and purpose-driven collaboration is essential to that advocating. Without the input of teachers, the School Board can't know whether or not curriculum or strategies are working, whether teachers are bending beneath the weight they carry, whether students' needs are being met. Without the input from classified staff members, the School Board is poorly informed about the length of time it actually takes to Covid-level sanitize classrooms and bathrooms on a daily basis in order to maintain safety and health of all who step foot on campus. Without discussion with parents, the School Board is unable to make effective decisions for Special Day students who are unable to meet with their teachers because of state-mandated lock downs.

The job is to be a fierce and passionate advocate for every student under my care, working within the bounds of the law and yet demanding change when those boundaries prove ineffective. The only way to do this is to be present, informed, and collaborative in all areas.

Do you believe it is important to intentionally recruit with the aim of diversifying the district’s faculty, staff, and administration? If so, what would be your policy to achieve this?

We have a diverse community of students, so we need diversity in our teachers, staff, and administration. National City is a community of various races, languages, and education levels, whose households are multi-lingual, multi-generational, and often lower-income. We have families whose parents speak little to no English or who have been threatened with deportation based on immigration status.

It is imperative that the district finds ways to reflect the neighborhood for the sake of our students. Children need to see people who look like, sound like, are like them as mentors and role models, to speak into their lives about the possibilities ahead of them and to point out a path to get to their goals. They need adults that can communicate effectively with them - from straight up speaking their language to having faced similar battles and challenges. They also need multi-generational adults in their lives, especially as many come from multi-generational homes or homes where an adult other than Mom or Dad is the head of house.

For this reason, I intend to encourage National School District to continue to hire diverse staff - from noon-time supervisors through to teachers to district administration - and to focus on those hirings and job opportunities to cross gender, race and culture, age, and orientation lines. The district should be looking at its current staff to evaluate past hiring and staffing patterns, including retention and promotion habits. The representation of diverse employees should be evaluated also to assure no imbalance in diversity from the higher positions to our lowest entry positions - i.e. the custodial staff and kitchen staff represent one group of people while administrators look completely different.

What constitutes good teaching? How will you measure this? How will you support advanced teaching approaches?

Good teaching... there are so many opinions out there, some mandated by the state and federal government. I'll tell you what I DON'T think equals good teaching... making sure your students can pass a 3-day a year test to the point that your only focus is those 3 days. It is NOT spending weeks training students how to eliminate the bad multiple choice answers on state tests so they can focus in on the others. We've lost sight over the year of what EDUCATING is.

Educating is problem solving, building a sense of curiosity that leads to pursuit of answering the 'wonderings' students have, helping students realize their own goals and being able to self-analyze and reflect in a way that helps them attain those goals. Educating means giving students a strong foundation in reading, writing, and math when they're young so that they can focus later on critical thinking skills and understanding the world and its happenings.

So it follows that good teaching enhances these things. Good teaching encourages students to engage not only their texts but the world in a way that leads to deeper understandings of the way we are inter-connected and how what that individual has to offer in the future matters - whether opinions, job, innovative ideas, or the way they raise a family in the future.

Good teaching is harder to "measure" than taking a test with preset answers. While utilizing the standards, are students asking critical questions and problem solving to find answers? Do students persevere in engaging difficult tasks, finding the pursuit of the problem as rewarding as finding an actual answer? Are multiple opinions and approaches offered, heard, and valued as long as they have evidence and sound thinking behind them? These should be the markers of good teaching.

To encourage this type of teaching, I will encourage hands-on modeling with Socratic approaches to problem solving and discussion. Curriculum will also be selected that supports intellectual challenge.

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.

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