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Two candidates filed for the Area E seat of the Sequoia Union High School District Board on Aug. 12, while one other joined the race for the Area B seat by the Aug. 14 deadline, according to the San Mateo County Office of Elections.
The deadline was extended to Aug. 14 after incumbent trustees Shawneece Stevenson and Carrie Du Bois decided not to run for reelection.
San Jose State University professor Maria Cruz and educator Jon Bryant entered the race alongside community organizer Tonga Victoria, vying to replace Stevenson.
Former PayPal executive Daniel Torunian filed to run for Area B, joining former Student Trustee Jacob Yuryev and charter school principal Mary Beth Thompson.
Area B, which includes parts of San Carlos and Belmont, is represented by Du Bois, who has been on the board for 13 years. Du Bois decided not to run for reelection in order to “pass the baton to the next generation of parents in the district.”
Former Sequoia district spokesperson and former Ravenswood City School District trustee Ana Pulido filed to run for the Area E seat on Aug. 13 but did not qualify by the Aug. 14 deadline.
Stevenson and Du Bois have yet to publicly endorse any candidate.
“When I ran … I reached out to many voters who didn’t know our district and I often heard ‘no one has come to our community,’” Stevenson said in a statement to this news organization. “It’s an exciting time to partner with our district and I wish everyone well.”
Area E
Maria Cruz
Cruz is a professor at San Jose State University where she teaches in the Chicana/o Studies Department. She also directs the university’s McNair and Aspire Scholars Programs. She is running to represent Area E.
The McNair program seeks to encourage low-income first generation students or those who are underrepresented in graduate programs to pursue doctoral studies.
Aspire is a federally funded program that aims to increase graduation rates of underrepresented students.
“I wanted to be proactive in the community and I wanted to run for city council but my son is going into high school and I really want to be part of the policies that affect high schoolers,” said Cruz.
Cruz’s son was in the Tinsley Voluntary Transfer program, which allows kids living in East Palo Alto to attend some Peninsula districts as a result of a lawsuit filed in 1976 by parents. Her son attended elementary and middle school in the Las Lomitas district. He is now a freshman at M-A.
“I am green to the political scene but I am not green to education policy, student advocacy, and community building,” said Cruz.
Cruz said her top priority is advocating for people of color and people whose first language is not English.
“They need support,” Cruz said, on Wednesday, Aug. 14. “I went to M-A’s orientation yesterday and yes they had a translator but a lot gets lost.”
Cruz said she did not know what detracking is but wants to learn more about the issues facing the Sequoia district.
Editor’s note: After the article was published on Aug. 15, Cruz clarified that she does know what detracking is. She said, “I stand for all students to have a fair chance at exceeding and learning in the classroom and have the chance for exposure to high level classwork vs segregation.”
“I haven’t been following [Sequoia] so closely but I want to now,” she said.
“My intentions are good and I am here to serve,” Cruz added.
Jon Bryant
Bryant, who is running for the Area E seat, listed his ballot designation as “educator.”
According to publicly available records, Bryant is the CEO of Build Play Learn Labs, a nonprofit whose purpose is to “educate young minds about technology.”
According to a blog post on their website, Build Play Learn Labs ran their first STEM course in the Makerspace at the Onetta Harris Center in April 2023.
Their website says they offer “a range of innovative educational services designed to empower youth and communities.”
Bryant is also on the board of the East Palo Alto Community Archive.
According to his LinkedIn, he was a sixth grade teacher in the Ravenswood district for one year.
Bryant told this news organization in a statement, “I am committed to ensuring that every student, regardless of their ZIP code, has access to an exceptional education. The disparities in test scores between East Palo Alto and other areas of the district highlight the need for focused action. I am dedicated to advocating for equitable resources, supporting our educators, and expanding college and career readiness programs so that every student can thrive.”
Tonga Victoria
Victoria filed to run for the Area E seat earlier in the period. This news organization reported on her background and positions on Aug. 14.
Area B
Daniel Torunian
Torunian was a PayPal executive for over 10 years, leaving in June 2022. He is currently the vice chair of the San Mateo County Republican Party. He filed and qualified to run for the Area B seat on Aug. 14, the last day of the extended deadline.
He has written guest opinions for the San Mateo Daily Journal. In an opinion column, Torunian argued local governments need to reduce tax burden on citizens.
“When times are difficult as these are and families are struggling to make ends meet, local governments would be wise to act in a more empathic manner and look for ways to reduce the financial burden that we all bear rather than looking at options to increase it. It would also be wise to practice a more pragmatic and disciplined approach to financial planning and management,” he wrote in an article titled “Hard times call for light(er) government.”
He also criticized San Mateo Union High School District’s Ethnic Studies curriculum. He wrote that they were “Framing the discussion in this manner clearly implies a desired outcome, removes critical thinking and inquiry from the discussion and does nothing to further cultural awareness. We should be lifting up everyone and creating common awareness for all ethnicities and cultures.”
“The things we are seeing with trying to alter history and especially with gender studies and maybe influencing things at too early of an age. … I think that things have gone too far and the pendulum needs to swing back to center,” he said on the conservative AJ Steel Show.
Torunian also said he and his wife entered politics because “we could just not sit still and watch these issues play out.”
Torunian is on the Redwood City Police Advisory Commission.
This news organization published information on the two other candidates for Area B, Yuryev and Thompson, in July.
Regarding “detracking”. It sounds like “one size fits all.” This is not true with regard to math, which I taught at MA for many years. Students need to be placed in a math course which is sufficiently challenging, but not so advanced that the students fail. I would wish to see the opportunity for parents/students to challenge placement (particularly if the student or parent believes it to be too low). An exam could be developed to determine whether a student is sufficiently prepared, say in Algebra, to be placed in geometry. It would also be helpful for incoming students wanting to take geometry to take a summer Algebra “tune-up” class, since algebra is the basis for most of high school math.
So Maria didn’t know what the most important issue was but then after tried to cover herself? Amazing article. Thank you for your reporting.