|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
Three seats on the five member Sequoia Union High School District Board of Trustees will be decided by voters during the election this November.
The seats up for election represent Areas B, C and E and are currently held by Carrie Du Bois, Rich Ginn and Shawneece Stevenson, respectively.
Ginn is the only incumbent to file for re-election, according to the San Mateo County Chief Election Officer. Du Bois declined to comment and Stevenson could not be reached.
So far Ginn is running unopposed. Two candidates are running for Area B, including a former student trustee. Only one candidate has filed to run for Area E.
Candidates have until Aug. 9 to file nomination papers.
Area B
The San Mateo County site shows only two candidates have pulled papers to run for the Area B seat, which represents parts of San Carlos and Belmont.
Incumbent Carrie Du Bois declined to comment on if she will run for reelection.
Former Carlmont High School student and incoming Stanford University student Jacob Yuryev has qualified to be on the ballot. Yuryev was a student trustee on the board last school year and has been an adamant critic of the district’s course detracking.
“I tried to talk with every single student I could about detracking and their almost unanimous response was a resounding yes. They explicitly stated their desire for honors and AS classes to return,” he said during a Sept. 20 board meeting. “There was a dangerous assumption that every student who spoke in favor of tracking is privileged. By taking away honors and advanced classes, you aren’t solving the problem, you’re putting a band-aid on it.”
If elected, Yuryev would not be the only Stanford student on the board. Two years ago, voters in Area D elected M-A alum and then Stanford sophomore Sathvik Nori to the board.
The only other candidate who has filed papers to run for Area B is Mary Beth Thompson, although her status is still pending.
Thompson has been the executive director of Summit Prep, a public charter school in Redwood City, for over a year according to her LinkedIn. Thompson has worked at Summit for eight years, serving as the dean of culture and instruction and as a teacher.
Area C
Incumbent Rich Ginn currently represents Area C and is running for reelection. Area C includes Woodside, Portola Valley, Ladera and parts of Menlo Park and Atherton.
According to Ginn’s website, his priorities are to improve student engagement, enhance alternative academic routes, provide teachers with support, and support extracurricular activities.
As board president, Ginn advocated for a board directive to re-affirm the district’s intention to keep all AP classes during a meeting on detracking. He also advocated for the board to take action on community concerns regarding detracking.
“I’m hearing from a lot of families that ninth grade is soft, it’s easier than eighth grade was, and students’ needs aren’t being met. I’m hearing from those families that they are going to private school and I’m also hearing the same from East Palo Alto students,” he said at a board study session.
“I want everyone to feel like M-A is the right place for them. I don’t know what the right solution is but it is not to do nothing,” he added.
Ginn previously served as a trustee on the Los Lomitas Elementary School District governing board for eight years. He already has the endorsement of two of his SUHSD colleges, Du Bois and Nori, along with State Sen. Josh Becker, D-Menlo Park, Assembly member Marc Berman, D-Palo Alto, and San Mateo County Supervisor Ray Mueller.
No other candidate has filed papers to run against Ginn.
In his last election, Ginn raised $17,258, the most of any candidate for the SUHSD board during that election cycle. However, $11,000 of that number was self funded.
Area E
Area E encompasses East Palo Alto and some of North Fair Oaks and is currently represented by Shawneece Stevenson, who has not yet filed with the county. She did not respond to requests for comment on if she is running for reelection. Stevenson still has $945 left over in campaign funds from her previous campaign.
Tonga Victoria, a parent and community organizer, is the only person who has filed papers to run for election in Area E.
Victoria is an East Palo Alto-based author that the Palo Alto Weekly profiled in 2021 when she released her first novel “Hyphen American.” The book is a fictional novel for young adults about a 21st-century Polynesian American girl who is working in tech until she discovers she is the rightful owner of a super nuclear energy that is mined from the Earth.
Victoria is a child of Tongan immigrants. She started in school in an English as a second language program; she was embarrassed to read aloud in class.
“That can cause a lot of hidden trauma,” Victoria said in 2021.
The past four years at SUHSD
SUHSD has had a tumultuous four years. At the start of their terms in 2020, the board debated how to reopen schools after the pandemic forced shutdowns a year earlier. Shortly before the election, Superintendent Mary Streshly resigned after 22 administrators and the teachers union called for the district to fire her.
In November 2022, two students brought guns to Menlo-Atherton High School, sparking new concerns about school safety.
After the 2022 election, the board held a special meeting to swear two new board members in early so they could participate in a closed session vote to hire lawyer Eugene Whitlock — a move that exacerbated rumors that the board was going to fire Superintendent Darnise Williams, Streshly’s replacement.
Williams “resigned” five days later and the district paid her a $300,000 settlement for still unknown reasons. The board was accused of racism, violating public trust and violating the Brown Act.
On April 28, 2023, a student was arrested at a bus stop outside of M-A after allegedly committing a hate-crime against an administrator. The arrest sparked protests and a federal lawsuit.
The district commissioned a controversial study of its detracking initiative, removing lower level advanced classes. The board held two meetings on the issue, with one lasting until 1 a.m.
Eventually, the board took limited action on the issue, a move highly criticized by parents at the time. SUHSD’s detracking efforts garnered national attention. The subject is expected to be one of the main policy issues discussed this election cycle.
After Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel, the district was in the national spotlight again after an ethnic studies teacher presented a lesson that community members argued was antisemitic and factually incorrect.
The teacher responsible for the lesson, Chloe Gentile-Montgomery, has since been fired but not before community members went to the board demanding accountability and an explanation. The district has yet to publicly address the issue.
Redwood City attorney sues ‘First Amendment auditors’ after Menlo Park disputeApril 2, 2026 11:31 am
