Shana Segal rises above the pack in her response to this question. Wow! Thank you for such a detailed response to REAL issues that you have witnessed in your dedicated time thus far with PAUSD. Bravo.

Ms. Chiu-Wang and Mr. Dharap are right on. Their human 2 human, student 2 student approach is welcoming and inclusive. I have had a lot of respect for Mr. Austin over the years. Especially coming into a highly toxic & grief stricken district! Yet. I have not heard him refer 2 COVID 4 months. As if Co-V2 never happened. 2 thier credit PAUSD Board stepped up hugely w Pandemic crisis & served the most needy families first!! A+ Immediately, the City & District wiped the PAPD assigned campus resource officer. Wether this was a G Floyd response or budget or both, I was extremely concerned. Instead private, fully armed security is hired for Paly/Gunn once in a decade football game. Totally perplexed. Shauna’s reliance on data sets & bullet points, & contract consults sets me on edge. Our students are overwhelmed w filing out forms & saddled w confusion w tge who, what, when and where guidance is for their academic & day to day live/academic/ lives. They deserve bette. I am all the way with Md. Chiu- Wang & incumbent, Dharpa. I really believe it’s okay to partner with local, affiliated, city agencies, departments and entities to get our students to baseline. Without the perceived negative “optics”. Personally, my teen child is mystified at sudden changes: like the three tiered high school guidance system, households were informed of a week before fall term. This does not have to be rocket science, or a computer engineer to navigate. It should not be a maze but a path to a better future. Again. Ms. Segal, data sets, surveys, and consults are not the way to a child’s individual success. To Ms. Compos. Please remove all your campaign signs from east side of Alma, planted in City grass area between curb and sidewalk. Talk about bad optics. Someone has stuck these in front of many multi family, rental properties. Please don’t take advantage of these un sanctioned areas for a vote. Renters r given few rights. showing campaign support, unknowingly could be a lease violation.

It has been noted in other articles that Ms. Chiu Wang recently moved to Palo Alto and enrolled her child in TK. Without any experience in the schools yet, it is hard to consider her talking points about the school experience during covid as anything other than spoonfed information from the powers that be in PAUSD. She also appears to have an inside track on hiring information since Dr. Austin's public email on Friday stated they had extended an offer to a top candidate for the communications manager role. When was the information for this article sent in by her team?

I'm digging into who is behind each of these campaigns and not liking what I see, especially the ways she is receiving inside help. How can someone weigh issues independently and credibly represent who they are elected to represent when they owe favors to the current board?

I love Shana’s response! Clearly she’s familiar with those documents, and it shows. Shounak obviously also is. Let’s get/keep capable people who are not afraid of diving into the details onto the school board! It’s the details that keep the system running; the state and federal laws, state forms, taxation systems, teacher contracts, and other state and federal requirements. Let’s have people who understand them, work with them and can hit the ground running as we come out of COVID. Good intentions are nice, but the school district needs extremely capable people who can work within the system if we are to make forward progress here. We have a moment where change could happen, let’s seize it!

What an interesting campaign it has been so far!
[Portion removed.]

In spite of the BLM yard signs and the politically correct t-shirts, we have a lot of people in Palo Alto that clearly do not understand real inclusivity or representation. Or maybe they do know what it means but don't actually believe in it if it means THEY might have to compromise on anything?! They only wave the inclusivity banner when it is convenient or politically helpful.

This campaign has shined a light on the attempted power grab. The goal is complete control of the school board to drown out any other voices that don't share their "superior" ideological beliefs - exactly the opposite of inclusivity.

Please, let's change this long-time dynamic in Palo Alto. We need independent voices on the school board that will listen to and value the whole community not a cabal.

Shounak and Nicole are running on the best platforms with positive campaign, and these two are our top choice for PAUSD school board. They are representing new generation of local Asian American parents, that’s why they have many supporters from local young Asian American parents.

[Portion removed due to deletion of referenced comment.] Nicole Chiu-Wang has the support of many in this community, including but not limited to, Asian voters. Regardless of political affliction, could we focus our discussion away from external appearance and turn our attention to the pressing issues at hand.

@PAUSD Parent - Inclusivity is a pressing issue on our community to many people. It's great that Shana is actually willing to listen to everyone and make up her own mind. We need that independence on the Board.

All the candidates have positive ideas in their platforms but only Shana knows HOW to get things done in a school setting. She has the most well-thought out ideas and specifics. Ideas alone do not change things - well executed actions do and we need someone with the knowledge and skill set to get things done on the Board.

@Resident10 Ms. Nicole Chiu-Wang and Shounak offer the very ideals we expect from or students / children. Compassion, empathy, resiliency, inclusivity, equity, diversity and knowledge based decisions. They are young with a fresh perspective and yes, I believe both are by necessity, renters. A data point that is front and center our PAUSD and City governance, resident senior citizens, children, differently abled, the missing middle — parent who work at Wal-Greens or McDonalds or teachers, or Stanford custodial, security guards or run a small biz... The nearly half or more who serve the needs of our more affluent SFH owners. These two doers and thinkers have heart for the very REAL struggle in sustaining and growing social emotional age appropriate, academic health — in a run-a-way capitalistic, privatization of near everything we touch . Wisdom can come at any age. And these two imbibe this quality of shared experience!! PAUSD is not a astroid spinning around the City Earth. Alignment of both City and PAUSD planets by means of a balance gravitational pull and push so both exist together with stronger partnering. Such that one cannot exist with the influential, tandem work that has to accomplished. Sharing, giving property up, expanding equitable resources to together as one Universe we grow.

I will not be supporting Ingrid Campos for school board. Check out her Facebook postings. Ms. Campos is a MAGA Republican who has no problem calling Gavin Newsome an "a__hole," and Nancy Pelosi a "biyatch." She believes that Anthony Fauci should be "tried for treason" and would be happy to see Hillary "locked up." She thinks that Liz Cheney is "un-American" and loves whatever she hears coming out of the mouths of Rand Paul and Marjorie Taylor Greene. Ms. Campos believes that the January 6th rioters were "exercising their right to free speech." When questioned about her right-wing views, Ms. Campos claims they are irrelevant to the local school board race. Oh, really?? On her campaign website Ms. Campos states that LGBTQ members of our community are living a "deviant lifestyle." She complains that Scholastic books is a "deviant book publishing company" and should be banned by all Palo Alto schools. She finds any discussion of race or racism in the classroom an example of Critical Race Theory. Don't be misled by her benign, friendly-sounding campaign. [Portion removed.] Our school district has serious challenges ahead. We don't need to be distracted by someone like Ms. Campos. We don't need to be represented by someone who disrespects our community by calling it "woke, libtard Palo Alto." Nope. Don't be apathetic. [Portion removed.]

@Linda Mackenzie - Why do you think Campos is such a fan of Don Austin? Shana Segal says that Austin is "dismissive and/or intimidating" and implies a lack of respect that Austin gives parents. Does that sound like anyone else that used to be in charge? Austin does what he wants and bullies people that disagree with him. Disappointed to see Dharap try to tiptoe around that.

@Native to the Bay - Nicole and Shounk are "Doers". What is the evidence of this? What has Nicole done in the community or the schools to show us this? Wisdom of shared experience??? No experience in the schools for either [portion removed.] Lots of words but little compelling facts or arguments here. Prose is lovely but not a compelling reason to vote for either of them.

@morgan, I too am disappointed by Mr. Dharap's answer with respect to our current superintendent. It speaks of the unfortunate and possibly inevitable capture that occurs with many Boards. They listen too much to the avalanche of victory speeches and chest thumping emanating from 25 Churchill. Meanwhile, morale is reaching rock bottom, Special Ed continues its march toward litigation through failing to meet IEP promises and on and on. The Board is blind to the reality because they are beholden to the current superintendent. Thus we see 99% unanimous votes on everything, and a rubber stamp of the whole program put forth by this admin. The dismissiveness of parents, the public, and teachers is not a bug, it's a feature. This Board needs 2 new board members. There seems to be some debate around should one choose Shana or Nicole? In my mind it's clear what that they both need to be elected. They have my vote. Is Nicole a bit of a wild card? Sure. Most likely she will be an upgrade on current members. Sometimes you just need to take a flyer - there's no way to be sure, but this institution is hurting - and for the students - I'm ready to take that risk.

@morgan.....My view is that Ingrid Campos is presenting herself as an insider, someone who can work with the superintendent and already has a good rapport with him. But, I really have no idea why she's giving the guy an "A-" for his work performance. She states that she can discuss her "dreams and laments" with him, so maybe that's why? But, according to the Santa Clara Democratic Party, Ingrid Campos has been identified as one of a number of MAGA-supported candidates running for school board seats, and MAGA-supported candidates have been instructed to "hide their anti-LQBTQ agenda and opposition to historical fact-based teaching on the subject of race, when speaking to a general audience." So, in my view, Ingrid Campos is also hiding behind a facade of benign niceness to suggest that she's a great communicator and already has a well-established bridge to the superintendent. That may appeal to some voters, but I'm not buying it. Right now she's just a parent in the district. He has to listen to her. If she were elected, entirely different story.

@Anony Mouse - Yes. From what I've seen when candidates campaign they tell you all of their great ideas and how they're going to make changes to the district. Once they get elected, it's as if someone flipped a switch in their brain and they no longer have any ambition to do anything but keep the status quo. Look at all of the current board members. How many of them have actually made a stand for something they claimed to support prior to getting elected. Ken Dauber has campaigned on anti-bullying, sexual harassment and anti-homework overload. He's been there for 8 years and have you ever seen him make an impassioned plea for any of that? Same with Collins, Dharap, DiBrienza and Ladomirak. Dharap and Ladomirak basically fade into the background. DiBrienza rarely has anything substantial to say and all three of them seem to just agree with what everyone else is saying.

It's as if they're afraid of saying something that might cause change. I would think that causing change is one of the reasons they decided to run in the first place.

As for Campos, @Linda Mackenzie. Yeah, she and Austin are two peas in a pod. I would guess they agree on many issues.