A champion for her cause

Angelique Flores

In 10 years as a trustee, Bonnie Bruce missed only one Huntington

Beach Union High School District board meeting.

And that was only because she was sick with the flu.

But come January, Bruce, who did not seek reelection to the board this

year, will find her seat on the dais empty.

“I felt that 10 years was a contribution I had made to the community,

and I had other professional obligations to fulfill,” Bruce said.

Bruce, 56, was appointed in 1990, after then-Trustee David Warfield

moved out of the district. After a push by peers who had seen her

involvement, the Fountain Valley resident won her seat in 1992 and again

in 1996.

“Her agenda was always public education and doing what is best for the

children,” said Michael Simons, who has sat with Bruce on the school

board for nine years and who is seeking reelection next month.

Simons said she often took politics out of the equation when it came

to making decisions for the district’s schools and students.

“She’s helped us do the right thing over the years when we had to make

decisions about what to do and what not to do,” said Jerry White, the

district’s director of curriculum, as well as Bruce’s neighbor and

friend.

Some of Bruce’s fond memories include working with her colleagues, the

thrill of graduation and watching the teachers connect with the students

in the classroom.

“She really set a high standard for accessibility and making judgments

for what’s best for students,” Simons said.

Bruce is glad to leave the district with modernization projects and

class-size reduction in the works.But she has seen the district through

some grim times.

“There were times for decisions to make where there were no good

decisions,” Bruce said.

One of those times was when the board had to cut back programs because

of a lack of funds and then had to tell employee groups that the district

didn’t have any money to give them.

Through the lean times, Bruce was grateful for the trust she felt was

placed in her.

“The greatest honor you can have bestowed upon you is to be elected by

your own community at a local level,” Bruce said.

Bruce’s colleagues say they will miss her as much as she will miss

them and the place she calls “home.””Bonnie has been a mainstay in our

district,” White said. “She’s made a great difference in the

district.”Even before her stint as a trustee, Bruce has had her finger on

the pulse of the educational community. She has been involved with

parent-teacher associations since the early 1970s and was one of the

founding members of the Say No to Drugs campaign.

She is also a member of the Assn. for the Education of Young Children,

the American Assn. for Consumer Sciences, the American Assn. for

University Women and the district’s Educational Enrichment Foundation.

“I will always continue in education-related activities,” Bruce said.

“That’s just a big part of who I am and who I’ll always be.”

Bruce’s decision not to run again came about because she wants to

pursue a doctorate degree. She received her bachelor’s degree in human

development and family studies at West Virginia Wesleyan College. She

earned a master’s degree in special education at Middle Tennessee State

University while raising her three children.”I would also like to devote

more time to my family,” she said.

Bruce and her husband, Ron, have been married for 34 years and have

two daughters and a son. Her children, now grown, went through district

schools.

Bruce now runs Chancy and Bruce Educational Resources, a business she

co-founded in 1984. The Huntington Beach-based business is a resource

company that works with early childhood educational programs.

Before coming to Orange County, Bruce was a special education resource

teacher and worked at Bellflower Unified School District as a consultant,

setting up early intervention programs during the 1990s.

“Education is the most important thing to me,” Bruce said. “It is a

cause that I will always champion.”