|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
Candidates for the Sequoia Union High School District Board of Trustees outlined their visions for the future of the district during The Almanac and Redwood City Pulse’s candidate forum on Thursday, Oct. 10. The forum, held at the Menlo Park City Council Chambers, was attended by all six candidates running for the Area B and Area E seats.
The event drew an in-person audience of 40 people, while the YouTube livestream, hosted by MidPen Media Center, garnered over 200 views within 24 hours. In attendance were three current board members: outgoing Area B trustee Carrie Du Bois, Area C Trustee Rich Ginn, and Area D Trustee Sathvik Nori.
Watch a recording of the forum on YouTube with subtitles in different languages.
The forum was moderated by Almanac Editor Angela Swartz and Staff Writer Jennifer Yoshikoshi. In total, candidates were asked seven pre-determined questions as well as six audience-submitted questions.
Learn more about the candidates on this news organization’s election guide.
Priorities
The first question focused on what issues the candidates would want to first bring to the board if elected.
Area B candidates Daniel Torunian and Jacob Yuryev both emphasized the importance of revisiting the district’s detracking policy, a heated topic. Detracking is the removal of honors courses to place students of mixed academic abilities in the same courses to level the playing field.
Area B candidate Mary Beth Thompson argued that the district should prioritize new topics. “The data already exists out there for policies from four years ago (like detracking), what does not exist right now is looking at how our students are affected by extremely high pressure societal norms,” she said.
Area E candidates Maria Cruz and Tonga Victoria said they would want to first address detracking. Cruz also wants the district to look at student mental health and Victoria wants a focus on building community. However, Area E Candidate Jon Bryant said he wants to first address teacher burnout in the district.
Detracking
Detracking was one of the main focuses of the candidates.
Torunian voiced his concerns about the lack of data supporting the benefits of current course offerings, stressing the need for a “substantive, data-driven discussion” on whether detracking serves students well. Yuryev added that recent changes to advanced classes were not yielding the intended outcomes, particularly for underrepresented students.
“We really need to help the students who are underrepresented. The data doesn’t show that we are effectively doing that,” Yuryev said, calling for a focus on improving the transition from middle school to high school and improving academic support.
Thompson is the only Area B candidate who supports the district’s detracking initiative, however, she clarified that neither she nor the district want additional classes to be removed. “The classes that were removed were one or two from the ninth or tenth grade curriculum for very specific reasons to increase the sense of belonging and in the words of [Sequoia High School Principal] Sean Priest ‘let people find their people.’”
“We put a lot of pressure on our students and it’s not just burnout on our teachers, it’s burnout on our students,” she added.
Victoria said she wants to work to improve the pipeline from the Ravenswood City School District to the Sequoia district and on her candidate questionnaire said she would support restoring removed honors classes.
Bryant discussed training teachers to handle students at different levels and adding more AP classes.
Cruz said that the district’s detracking policy has been good and encouraged open discussions. She also supported the board’s directive last year to add additional electives for freshmen. “Freshmen, like my son, are able to take electives to find somewhere where they really belong. When you find a place you belong, you will have higher retention rates,” she said.
Uniformity in course offerings
Candidates were also asked a question from the audience about whether course offerings should be similar across different schools in the district, especially relating to courses that have been detracked at some schools but not all.
Thompson does not see an issue with course offerings being different across schools.
“The district already doesn’t have uniformity across sites,” she said. “I think the school sites should have a lot of autonomy on how best to serve their community.”
Torunian said students should have similar opportunities but tailored to their communities. Yuryev argued that there should be at least some level of uniformity across schools.
Bryant said that each school should offer the same amount of services.
Cruz said: “Every school should have its own autonomy on what they choose and how they choose to do it.”
Victoria said there should be limited oversight of sensitive courses like Ethnic Studies.
Student well-being and mental health
Candidates also addressed questions related to mental health issues amongst students. In a district survey conducted last school year, 42% of students said workload stress “almost always” or “frequently” impacted their abilities to complete assignments.
Thompson said, “What good is a 4.0 GPA if you’re burnt out by the time you get to college?” She said that the district needs to take a well rounded approach to mental health.
“We need to look at the whole child. Mental health is not just a counselor, it’s not just a wellness space, those are extremely important but we need to look at everything that is affecting our young people,” she added.
Torunian agreed with Thompson on the importance of a well rounded approach to student support. Yuryev emphasized the need to fund student activities and extracurriculars to foster a sense of belonging among students.
Cruz, a professor at San Jose State University, said, “I have seen students in college coming in burnt out already because they were stressed out in regards to the AP courses they had taken in high school.” She also wants to ensure every site has the resources to support student mental health.
Bryant said, “I feel like as a community, we really need to put mental health on the forefront.”
Technology and transparency
All candidates supported strategies to reduce cell phone usage in classrooms and integrate technology and AI in the classroom. Additionally, they unanimously agreed that transparency and communication should be key areas of focus for the district moving forward.
Watch a recording of the forum on youtube.com/@TheMidpenMediaCenter.
Redwood City attorney sues ‘First Amendment auditors’ after Menlo Park disputeApril 2, 2026 11:31 am
