At this week's school board meeting, I announced that I'm resigning from my school board position, effective June 17th. Here's is what I said:

I have an announcement to make. I was asked to apply for the planning commission for my city of Walnut Creek, and last week I was chosen as one of 2 new members. I will be sworn in on June 17th, and am excited about being able to make a difference in my city, especially right now as it engages in updating the city general plan with a vision and goals for the next 20 years.

I did discover, however, that there is a conflict of interest in that role with school board since they are overlapping jurisdictions. And so after much thought and introspection, I have decided to submit my resignation from this school board position, effective next Tuesday June 17th.

I know this may come as a surprise to many of you. Frankly it was to me too, as I never thought I would leave this role before the end of my term. But at this time I feel called to make a difference in my community in a new way.
I am so honored to have served on the Mt Diablo School Board for nearly 7 years now. I'm proud of all of our accomplishments over those years, and I have full confidence in this Board and Superintendent to continue the hard work towards meeting the goals we’ve set, to champion our students, and to advocate for quality public education for all.

We’ve been through a lot together, and I’m proud that we’ve made systemic changes in many ways to last for years to come. Some that stand out in my mind are: We

• Added an official student trustee position to our team, to elevate student voice
• Steered this ship through the choppy waters of COVID
• Gave our teachers & staff a 9% raise and 100% benefits, while still making fiscally responsible decisions that raised our financial ratings and protected us from the mass layoffs that many districts are now facing
• Adopted new curricula across the board, from Next Generation Science to History/Social Science, ELA and Math, including piloting literacy screeners before most other districts
• Updated our board policies (a heavy lift)
• Went from outdated tech (servers literally in closets in the district office and schools raising their own $ for student laptops) to equity based IT investments that are cyber secure with 1:1 student chromebooks.
• Hired a Title IX coordinator to ensure gender equity in sports
• Transitioned from English Language Learners to Multilingual Department, including collaborating with community based organizations to win funding for a Newcomer Care Coordinator

Not to mention that our district has:

• the only International Baccalaureate high school in Contra Costa county (including a diploma that is recognized worldwide)
• Dual Language Immersion schools that smaller districts simply cannot provide
• amazing educators such as our recent statewide teacher of the year Mr. Alvarico at Ygnacio Valley High School, who transformed an old unused woodshop into his vision of an engineering career pathway and robotics team (These students are mentored by and present to local professionals. Their InvenTeam is in Boston at MIT this week presenting their invention.)
• and so much more that was mentioned in Dr. Clark’s End of Year message

Dr. Clark, thank you for your steadfast leadership and excellence in truly working as a team with each of us on this board, and for staying focused on equity and excellence for all students always. I am so thankful to have had this chance to learn from you and collaborate with you. President Mayo, thank you for mentoring me from the very beginning when I began asking you questions as a parent interested in running for school board, and the many details you taught me all along the way. Trustee Mason, thank you for working together with me on ways to ensure students in every zip code have access to quality schools. Trustee McDougall, thank you for being open to meeting with me and hearing my perspective, and discovering we both care about quality career pathways. Trustee Nzewi, thank you for being an inspiration, sharing your vision, your extensive policy knowledge, and what you’ve learned in nationwide networks. 

And so, I am fully confident that Dr. Clark and this board will continue to strive towards excellence for all students. Though I am stepping down from this official role, I will always champion Mt Diablo Unified School district students and the importance of quality public education for all.

p.s. After my remarks, Trustee Nzewi reminded me that I forgot to mention being the creator of our board's first PRIDE resolution and flag raising, which our board has passed every year since. The resolution and flag are symbols of our dedication to the welcoming inclusion of our LGBTQIA+ students, and they highlight our actual board policies that protect these students and ensure they are fully respected in our schools. 

Congratulations, graduates!  

It's inspiring to see such confident, thoughtful, caring students graduate from our schools and launch their futures, especially in such a tumultuous time nationally and globally. I was honored to speak at our College Now and Northgate High graduation ceremonies, and to attend or watch all the others online. 

All of the speakers at all the graduations were excellent, but two students from Mt. Diablo High in particular really moved me. (watch here starting at 30:19 and 41:22) 

• Randy Yanez Gonzales gave a fully bilingual speech about working backbreaking jobs before and after school and on weekends with his dad, who said "study, son, so you don't have to work like me because a pencil weighs less than a shovel".
• And valedictorian Kuan Te Lu shared what it was like to come here in 6th grade from Taiwan, not speaking English, feeling left out until he found a welcoming home at Mt Diablo High. He acknowledged his family as well as the smiling staff, the Chinese culture club, and multiple languages being woven into various activities by encouraging teachers for his success.

I'm thankful for our student school board member Crystal Ochoa Gonzales, who provided much insight throughout the year as to how students from various schools were faring and feeling. She graduated from Olympic High School and her speech shares her inspiring journey as well. (watch here at 52:32)

I loved seeing the College Now students open their ceremony with multilingual welcomes, and was impressed that student Madeleine Lee had earned an AA degree while in high school, and yet focused her speech on the importance of not just academics, but also of diverse community and finding friends who accepted her fully as herself.

As for Northgate, I felt happy tears coming to my eyes as they opened with two students singing a beautiful rendition of "For Good", and then again as I looked out into the crowd of graduates before my speech, as I've watched many of them grow up since elementary school.  (watch here starting at 3:20 and 1:17:13)

 Have a wonderful summer everyone, and happy PRIDE month!  Here is the group I organized this year to walk in the Clayton PRIDE parade, from public schools all over Contra Costa.

This week I took 3 days off work to fly to DC to lobby for our public schools with 300+ California school board members and superintendents from every county in our state. 

Our top asks were:

•  for Congress to fulfill its promise from the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1975 to pay 40% instead of just 10% of our Special Education costs, (this would give MDUSD an additional $34 million per year)
• to fund Universal School Meals that proved so effective during COVID. It reduces stigma, creates a healthy learning environment for all, and reduces unnecessary bureaucratic paperwork. (the current proposed federal funding cut is predicted to remove 15 schools, 9524 students in MDUSD from eligibility) 
• To co-sponsor the bipartisan bill for Secure Rural Schools 

But this year was different from any advocacy I’ve ever done on the Hill. This year we needed to get up to speed fast on the legal ramifications of concentrated Executive Branch power, and what happens when our President ignores judicial decisions. 

And this year we learned about the massive federal action Trump is asking Congress to take before July 4th to pass his “Big Beautiful Bill”. This was the elephant in the room. It is the reason we’ve seen legislators give record-long speeches and host sit-ins on the Capitol steps: to bring awareness to who will be devastated by this unprecedented slashing of federal programs we depend on for students, seniors, people with disabilities… our most vulnerable neighbors. 

The Budget Resolution instructs the House Energy & Commerce Committee to make at least $880B in reductions through 2034, which mathematically cannot be done without slashing Medicaid. In California Medicaid is distributed as MediCal, covering 3 in 7 children. Schools in California receive over $1 billion for health services provided by schools. In MDUSD this includes valued mental health services as well as crucial complex medical care during school for special needs students. 

When we met with our Congressman DeSaulnier, he had just come from the Education Committee meeting where the Republicans were making devastating cuts to higher education. We thanked him for fighting for our students by authoring and co-sponsoring bills for special education and much more.

This is all so beyond reason for the GOP to slash so many programs that have bipartisan support, cost very little, and clearly save taxpayer dollars through proven preventative actions. 

• The Trump administration just announced a $1 Billion cut in existing grants for school mental health that had been allocated in 2023 by the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act enacted in response to the Uvalde school shooting.
• and AmeriCorps was cut, which was previously Thousand Points of Light by President Bush. It provides thousands of volunteers to public schools & communities nationwide. (I was an AmeriCorps*VISTA volunteer in 1996, and it inspired me to shift my career path from engineering to public service!)

While in DC I also watched this Georgetown Edunomics Lab webinar: Making sense of federal and other financial risks for K12. This was especially timely since we as a school board need to approve our MDUSD budget in June, and last week MDUSD reached impasse in negotiations with our teachers union who have asked for significant financial commitments. 

My biggest takeaways were the high risks we must consider that:

• a recession could trigger a reduction in our state funds, and/or 
• that immigrant fears & deportations could cause attendance & enrollment drops that reduce funding. 

We will need to be careful in MDUSD to maintain reserves, avoid recurring financial commitments, maintain flexibility for different scenarios, and track attendance carefully. 

Despite all these challenges, I remain dedicated to speaking up for our students. Standing at the capitol building still gives me a sense of awe of our democracy. We all must shoulder the grave responsibility of keeping alive this country's vision of equality & justice for all. 

This Presidents Day I am outraged by our President’s intentional creation of chaos and fear, targeting the most vulnerable in our schools & communities: immigrants and LGBTQIA+ youth. Please know and share that I and our Mt Diablo School Board and district are doing everything we can and that we remain steadfast in our support and commitment to safe and welcoming schools for ALL students.

Dr. Clark sent out specific communications to our students & families on immigration and LGBTQIA+ rights, but here is a short summary:

Immigration: We learned that while Trump removed schools from their long standing federal protection from ICE immigrant raids, however our local police forces clarified they still do not cooperate with or engage in immigration activity, and our district policies remain firm: if ICE agents approach a school, they should be sent to the district office to present their warrant.
→ We have been sharing immigration resources in the Friday letter, such as free legal help and the DVC Dreamers Conference. We are thankful for the expertise & dedication of groups like Stand Together Contra Costa.

LGBTQIA+: A federal judge rolled back Biden administration rules that had extended Title IX protections to students on the basis of gender identity, however our CA state education code still protects against discrimination on the basis of gender, gender expression, gender identity, and sexual orientation, and so do our local board policies.
→ We will continue to partner with PFLAG to support students & families, including hosting the PRIDE prom at Concord High.

Meanwhile, efforts have begun to dismantle the Department of Education, creating concern about what happens to Title 1 and Special Education funding of our schools, as well as federal protections of disabled students through 504s & IEPs, the federal student aid FAFSA form, and more. We will remain vigilant.