All six candidates for the District’s Board of Trustees participated in a forum hosted by The Almanac on Thursday, Oct. 10. Area B candidates included Summit Prep executive director Mary Beth Thompson, former PayPal executive Daniel Torunian, and former student trustee Jacob Yuryev. Area E candidates included non-profit director Jon Bryant, San Jose State University professor Maria Cruz, and East Palo Alto community organizer Tonga Victoria.
Detracking
When asked about the first issue they would address as trustees, all candidates except Thompson and Bryant responded with the issue of detracking, or the District’s removal of advanced courses. Thompson brought up student mental health and teacher shortages, while Bryant highlighted teacher stress and burnout.
When asked, Thompson said she supported detracking to increase a sense of community among students and alleviate student stress. She added that the removal of these courses was supported by internal and external data.
“I want to clarify that neither the district nor myself has any interest in removing any additional honors classes, AP classes, or AS classes, and the classes that were removed were one or two from the ninth and tenth-grade curriculum for very specific reasons—to increase the sense of belonging, and in the words of Shaun Priest, ‘let people find their people’ in their freshman year of high school,” Thompson said.
Torunian and Victoria emphasized the importance of the middle-to-high school transition. Both support the reintroduction of tracked classes.
Yuryev also voiced his support for tracked courses, advocating for increased resources for students underrepresented in honors and AP classes through streamlining the transition between high schools and their feeder middle schools. He also wanted more academic support programs instead of detracking.
Yuryev argued the District should pay attention to data that would support reinstating tracked classes. “It’s extremely important that we really focus on the data that makes a difference rather than the data that keeps things the same,” he said.
Cruz supports the current detracking policies but discussed the potential to have room for change, mentioning the importance of student opinions, mental health, and offering freshman electives. Bryant, who is also undecided on detracking, emphasized the importance of training teachers to lead diverse classrooms.
Ethnic Studies
The candidates were asked about Killing America, a documentary critical of detracking, as well as last year’s controversial Ethnic Studies lesson about the Israel-Palestine conflict. Thompson spoke first, voicing her support for Ethnic Studies and advocating for teacher training on how to best teach complicated history. Cruz, who is an Ethnic Studies professor, also expressed her support of the course.
“I’m happy that my son will have Ethnic Studies in his high school. I didn’t have Ethnic Studies until I ended up in college. So, I really didn’t see how my people, how the people I grew up with contributed to this country,” Cruz said.
Yuryev highlighted that the Ethnic Studies presentation had factual inaccuracies that impacted community trust. “While we need to emphasize and ensure that we’re supporting our teachers as much as possible, we also need to ensure that we’re listening to the community and listening to our parents and students that are speaking out,” he said.
Bryant advocated for teaching training and restorative justice.
Torunian referenced his op-ed criticizing Ethnic Studies published in the San Mateo Daily Journal. Though he previously told the M-A Chronicle he would not suggest any changes to District Ethnic Studies curricula, at the forum, he said he watched the documentary and found its content “troubling.”
“I am very supportive of the philosophy behind Ethnic Studies,” Torunian said. “But I think the implementation, proven by the artifacts that are out there in the public, show that we really are going down a much different path. It is a bit of a red line for me.”
Student Stress
All candidates supported increased mental health resources for students. Bryant supported increased counseling resources, Cruz wanted to learn more about resources at each district site, and both Thompson and Torunian emphasized a holistic approach to wellness. Victoria discussed the extensive mental health resources at Cesar Chavez Ravenswood Middle School created with the help of grassroots organizing.
“The things that we’ve been able to do include wellness retreats, summer camps, and youth leadership development. Being able to offer those to students—it requires some transparency, it requires asking for funds from the county level to really build out a robust mental health space for our students,” Victoria said.
Community Reactions
As the forum concluded, a community member asked why her questions were not answered. “What happened to the rest of the questions? Does this mean you are avoiding asking certain questions that our community wants to have a discussion on?” she asked. The moderators explained that the questions were screened beforehand due to time constraints.
Carlmont alum Isaac Braunstein appreciated the opportunity to hear from the candidates. “For the candidates to be able to speak about their issues is just really important for informing voters. I think an informed populace is so important to elections,” he said.
Sequoia teachers Martha and Beth, who asked that only their first names be published, commented on the forum as one of few ways to inform voters on candidate opinions. “It was good to actually get a sense for what people stand for. It’s really hard to figure that out just by Googling and being online. The forum was great, and I think it was good to hear a few of the candidates talk about supporting teachers and teacher burnout and things like that,” Mary said.
Beth emphasized the importance of a connection between District schools and the board. “I would just encourage all candidates and anyone who does get elected to visit school sites and to come and see what the classes look like, and to communicate with teachers and students and all the stakeholders there to actually see what’s happening in the classrooms because I think that’s part that the board misses out on a regular basis,” she said.
Watch a full recording of the forum here.
