Meet Bruce Ross for Shasta County Office of Education Trustee
Bruce Ross is running for one of four open seats on SCOE. He’s served on another local school district board for more than a decade and is a parent who hopes to bring a “focus on kids’ needs, not adults’ dramas” to the SCOE Board.
Communications director by day and twelve-year Redding School District Board member by night, Ross holds various titles connected to his commitment to education. None of those titles outweigh the most important to him, being a dad who wanted to get involved with his kids’ schools. Among his top priorities on SCOE are rebuilding Whiskeytown Environmental School and supporting school choice.
What background or experiences have prepared you to serve on the SCOE Board? What are your priorities as a board member?
I have served three terms on the board of trustees of the Redding School District and I’m very active with the California School Boards Association as the regional director for Shasta and five surrounding rural counties for about two years now, so I’ve really had the opportunity to learn about what’s happening not only in my own district but in other districts around Shasta County. I don’t have an education background. I am just a dad who wanted to get involved and make sure that my kids’ schools and their neighborhood schools were good.
My number one priority is Whiskeytown Environmental School, along with promoting school choice and focusing on kids’ needs over adult dramas.
What do you see as the value of public education? Have you or would utilize public schools for your children? Why or why not?
My wife and I have never considered alternatives to public schools. The American tradition of common schools, and of educating our whole populace, is what makes us a great, ‘small d’, democratic nation. I also think there is value for children to spend time with people who are not like them. Some of them you’ll get along with, some you won’t. But learning how to get along in a diverse society is an important part of growing up.
This board has seen a significant amount of conflict over the ideologically diverse views of its current members. How would you work to center the needs of students and collaborate with those you may disagree with?
Sometimes you can get sucked into arguments. I don’t need to fight with people, I can let it drop and move on to the next thing. I think the question I would always ask, and I would ask any board member when we’re making one of these decisions, is this: What does this do to improve education for kids? If I have to offer a gentle reminder about that principle, I can.
As a board member, you’ll oversee the county’s budget. What concerns if any do you have about SCOE’s current budgetary approach? What would you intend to change, if anything?
I don’t have any specific criticisms of the budget process or the current budget. I think they’re doing really good work.
One of the things that people don’t understand is what a county office of education does. For one thing, SCOE puts a lot of time and resources into early childhood education along with promoting access to childcare. Currently, SCOE is also looking at developing a new school site for children who’ve been expelled from other districts. I think that’s a great concept.
SCOE board members oversee several schools. How would you safeguard the rights of ethnically diverse children and those who are part of the LGBTQ+ community?
I think you should feel that any child, your queer child, your non-queer child, your ethnically different child, your not-in-the-minority child … every child should feel safe in their public school or their non-public school for that matter. Classrooms should have a good culture and be welcoming and respectful of all.
Shasta County serves numerous special education students. How would you work to uphold state and federal special education law and ensure the needs of special education students are met?
We’re here to do all we can to help. Special education issues and disagreements are probably the number one reason why you’re likely to have a closed session about pending or expected litigation on a school board. When you start to see the trend that there’s more lawyers involved, that’s usually a sign that something’s going wrong. Sometimes then you have to redirect the board conversation to what’s prompting all that litigation threat. Why are we talking to so many lawyers? What resources do we need to add and are we taking appropriate care?
Special education can be expensive, and that can be a challenge for school districts at times. I’m a Republican, but bless Gavin Newsom for California’s increased special education funding specifically for districts this budget year.
Oct. 7, 2026 2:15 p.m.: We have updated the story to correct a quote.
Do you have a correction to share? Email us: editor@shastascout.org.
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I’ve known Bruce Ross since he was an editor at the Record-Searchlight. I’ve seen him at the YMCA, in the pool playing with his kids. He is a Republican who says good things about Newsom. He’s able to say “queer child” without offending. I will vote for him.
In my opinion, any candidate for the SCOE Board (and particularly those who self-identify as “republican”) must address the question of how Shasta County will be affected by the ongoing “republican” plan to abolish the Department of Education.
It’s a fair question that likely won’t be answered directly by any local candidate who identifies as Republican. It’s still the kiss of death to defy Trump and buck the MAGA hive mentality, especially in communities like Shastanistan. Maybe that will change following the midterms, but for now the GOP norm is to be mealy-mouthed about Trump/MAGA policies even if you recognize their toxicity. That’s exactly why I want to know if Bruce supports taxpayer-funded school vouchers for Christian schools.
Honestly, Ed, the dissolution of the Department of Education has not had any noticeable effect on school districts that I know of. Maybe the county office is different, but that is something I have not seen.
On the district level, one of the biggest sources of federal supplemental money for schools serving students from poor families is Title I. It adds up to real money. It used to come through the Department of Education. Now it comes from the Department of Labor, but it is the same money.
Just one example of how less has changed than meets the eye, at least from my local perspective.
I don’t know Bruce personally, but I’ve interacted with him enough online to feel good about voting for him, even though our politics are disparate.
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Bruce says: “My number one priority is Whiskeytown Environmental School, along with promoting school choice…”
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Awesome on the support for WES camp. I’d like elaboration on “promoting school choice.” Bruce is a Republican, and in much of the Republican South, “supporting school choice” now means giving taxpayer-funded vouchers to parents who elect to send their kids to private Christian schools. I’m 97.3% sure that Bruce doesn’t mean that. Based on his support for mainstream public schools, I doubt that he favors bleeding public schools white to fund private schools. I’d like some kind of confirmation, though, because not only no on vouchers, but HELL no.
That is an interesting question but a hypothetical one. There is no school voucher system for K-12 schools in California, and the county Board of Education could not create one.
The county board can hear the appeal if a family requests an interdistrict transfer and is denied, or if a district denies a charter school’s petition for authorization. Without prejudging any particular case, my instinct would be to give families options that work for them.
I believe it was a binary yes/no question.
“That’s exactly why I want to know if Bruce supports taxpayer-funded school vouchers for Christian schools?”
Is your answer “yes?”