Race for School Board Now Contested

With pediatrician turned full-time volunteer Sarah Pearson announcing her bid, there are now four candidates vying for three spots on the Piedmont Unified School District's Board of Education in the Feb. 7 election. Pearson joins incumbent board member Rick Raushenbush, , and in the race.

Pearson, who co-chaired the successful school parcel tax campaign in 2009, will have a child in elementary school, middle school, and high school over the next school board term. In her statement of intent to run she wrote that that makes it the perfect time for her to serve.

"I am best situated to understand how school board decisions will affect children in the classrooms," wrote Pearson, who is a past PMS Parents Club president, an active member of the Wildwood Parents Club, and a regular classroom and library volunteer.

Now that she's an empty-nester, Andrea Swenson said it's the perfect time for her to run too.

"There are different needs for a kindergartner and a 12th grader—it's nice to have that perspective," she said. 

For Swenson, winning a seat on the school board in Piedmont—a community she considers to be defined by the quality of its schools—would be the pinnacle of a long volunteer career.

Other than the school board, Swenson is hard pressed to come up with a volunteer position in the school district that she hasn't held sometime over the last 15 years, from site council member to Giving Campaign Chair. For all her volunteering she was named the 2011 Art Hecht Volunteer of the Year. 

With both of her kids now in college—Lucy is a junior at Wellesley College and Sam is a freshman at Macalester College—Swenson had been planning to retire from volunteering in the school district. But with June Monach terming out and Martha Jones deciding not to run for reelection, she started giving a run for school board some thought.

"June and Martha are both going to be a huge loss. … The board now is the best, the most cohesive, that I've ever seen it," said Swenson.

Though she isn't coming to the race as a critic, Swenson did underscore that in light of new educational challenges and tight budgets, the school board will have some tough decisions to make in the next few years.

"We have to position ourselves for the future and make sure we're spending money in the right place," Swenson said. "I'm excited to be part of that."

Pearson said she wanted to make sure the decisions are, "data driven and promote the highest standards of teaching and learning."

Swenson and Pearson, and Jon Elliott, who was the first to announce his school board bid, are all emphasizing the need for improved communication with the community around the decision-making. In particular, Elliott said he would push for more public involvement in curriculum changes.

Additional to get into the race.