Among the definitions of politics is “the wielding of power.”
In the Yucaipa Calimesa Joint Unified School District, an object lesson in how power is wielded was recently provided when a student representative on the school board was chosen for the 2019-20 academic year.
The choice –  Yucaipa High School senior Atalie Bogh – boasts impressive credentials, including the 4.7 “academic weighted” grade point average she has compiled from the ninth grade though the eleventh grade, standing as an associated student body representative, participation on the cross country and track teams as well as involvement with the school’s Interact Club.
That portfolio appears to be justification enough for her appointment as the student representative on the school board, even in the face of other well-qualified candidates.
Politics is politics, and whatever those other candidates may have had to offer will take a backseat as Atalie Bogh’s selection reflects another dynamic, or set of dynamics, all of which come back to the wielding of power, the power of politics.
Atalie’s mother, Rosilicie Ochoa Bogh, is a member of the Yucaipa Calamesa School Board. What’s more, Rosilicie Ochoa Bogh is now running for California State Senate in the 23rd Senate District. What’s even more, Rosilicie Ochoa Bogh is making that run with the endorsement of the incumbent in the 23rd Senate District, Mike Morrell.
Add to that consideration that Atalie’s father, Greg Bogh, is currently a Yucaipa Councilman and former Yucaipa mayor. Her uncle, Russ Bogh, was initially defeated by fellow Republican Jan Leja in his run for the Assembly in the 65th Assembly District in 2000, but thereafter Leja agreed not to take the position she had been elected to in California’s lower legislative house after she pleaded guilty to campaign finance violations in that race. Russ Bogh won special election to replace her. In 2002 and 2004 he was reelected to the Assembly in the 65th District, which at that time straddled both San Bernardino County and Riverside County. The 65th District included Yucaipa.
Similarly, the Yucaipa Calimesa School District covers a portion of both San Bernardino County and Riverside County.
Atalie’s selection just happens to boost her mother’s prospects in the upcoming March primary, and will likely not hurt her father’s chances for reelection in another three years. Last year no one surfaced to challenge him in the Yucaipa District 2 race.
Whatever the credentials, qualifications, academic and extracurricular participation of the others competing for or considered as the student representative on the school board, appointing the scion of Yucaipa’s most powerful political family to the largely ceremonial and non-voting student representation position was the safest choice the Yucaipa High School faculty could make in terms of their career longevity and the district’s inner, and the community’s general, politics.