Groundhog Day in Lompoc

Childcare Workers’ Surprise Victory at Lompoc School Board Echoes Chamber of Commerce’s Reversal of Fortune at City Council

Lompoc YMCA workers celebrate their win at the Lompoc Unified School District Board of Trustees meeting on Tuesday, June 25. | Credit: John McReynolds

[Updated: Fri., June 27, 2025, 2pm]

One week after 47 speakers persuaded Lompoc City Council to reverse a vote to slash the Chamber of Commerce’s economic development work, an impassioned crowd of 50 childcare workers overcame a Lompoc Unified School District staff recommendation to hire a for-profit, out-of-state corporation to replace them.

In both cases, novice speakers held back (or failed to hold back) tears as they addressed a microphone for the first time in their lives.

Both cases looked like lost causes. In both, the crowds at the gate found allies to mix into the throng and make converts on the other side. And in both, they sought not to destroy but to persuade.

[Editorial note: I’m not making this up. Both times, I’m sitting there, taking notes, thinking, “This is not Les Misérables nor Groundhog Day, and these youngish kids at the barricades are not going to win.” Then they win.]

This latest incarnation of Les Mis took place at a meeting of the Board of Trustees of the Lompoc Unified School District (LUSD).

For 40 years, the YMCA has handled the lion’s share of afterschool services at nine Lompoc elementary schools. Early this year, for reasons still unclear, LUSD opted for a nationwide Request for Proposal for 2025-26. They called it “re-branding.” They received a dozen or more applications and chose AlphaBEST Education based in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. It serves 30,000 students in 17 states. The firm lists only three of its 13 California beachheads — in tony San Ramon Valley, Portola Valley, and Newport Beach — on its slam-bang Technicolor website.

On June 10, LUSD placed on the trustees’ agenda a motion to contract with AlphaBEST to provide childcare at all nine Lompoc grade schools. When 70 people showed up with fire in their eyes, they delayed the item for two weeks. This Tuesday night, they tried again.

The same crowd, mostly women, some with babies, took the microphone. About the 10th or 11th was a veteran community leader, Lucy Thoms-Harrington, until recently co-president of the Lompoc-Vandenberg Branch of AAUW (American Association of University Women). She went after AlphaBEST, concluding by asking, “Were they here on the 10th? Are they here tonight? Where are they?” Answer: On the 10th, they were in Lompoc but left after hearing the agenda item had been pulled, and as she spoke on the 24th, they was absent.

Lompoc Unified Trustee Brenda Villa | Credit: Courtesy Brenda Villa

Before long, the trustees began to stir. Brenda Villa — by far the youngest trustee and the first immigrant and Latina to win election to this body last November — declared, “This conversation should have happened months ago. I’ll be voting no.” Conservative LeAnne Woolever agreed, saying, “I put my trust in my community.” Tracy Phillips asked, “Tell me what AlphaBEST will offer that the Y doesn’t have.”

The vote failed 4-0, so Lompoc YMCA will continue with seven schools, and the Lompoc Boys & Girls Club will staff two when school resumes.

Villa received applause as she stepped outside afterward. Asked when she began to question the proposal, she said it came at the meeting on the 10th. “The more I researched the company, the more convinced I was,” she said.

“But I’m surprised. I was not expecting this. What really surprised me was how the community came prepared. It shifted the conversation.”

Thinking back to nay-sayers who told her she was wasting her time running for office, she added, “You don’t listen to them. You’ve got to show it’s doable. It’s for all of us.”

Editor’s Note: This story was updated to clarify that none of the three California locations listed on AlphaBEST’s website are in Marin County and that it has contracts with 13 total school districts, not only three as originally reported. Also, according to AlphaBEST’s CEO, their representative was in Lompoc on June 10 but left after learning the agenda item had been pulled and was absent, not hiding, at the June 24 meeting, to which she said they were not invited.