An open seat on the Pleasanton Unified School District board has drawn three candidates, and the two who answered a voter questionnaire published Monday are running on the same issue from different directions: the district's finances.
Trustee Justin Brown, who represents Area 5 in southeastern Pleasanton near Pleasanton Middle School, chose not to run again, according to Patch's Pleasanton voter guide. Karen Fletcher, Thomas Choi and Brett Martinez are on the Nov. 3 ballot for the seat. Martinez did not respond to Patch's questions. Laurie Walker has no opponent in Area 2.
Fletcher: a teacher who says the budget is recovering
Fletcher teaches engineering and robotics at Livermore High School, where she is in her 10th year and leads the career technical education department. She told Patch she worked earlier as a NASA engineer on vertical lift aircraft and has had four children go through Pleasanton schools over 18 years.
She named financial stability and transparency as PUSD's top issue, followed by student mental and physical health and a teachers' contract, which she said is still being negotiated for last year and this year. In her account, the district reversed last year's negative budget certification through cuts and new state money and is on track for a positive certification in December.
Her first-year priority, she said, would be demanding a line-by-line budget accounting from district leaders, along with a yearly review of personnel, services and operations, keeping reductions away from classrooms.
To raise steady income she pointed to growing enrollment, selling property, leasing unused buildings and expanding the Kids Club after-school program, including converting empty classrooms into Kids Club space so more working families can enroll children in transitional kindergarten.
Choi: an attorney calling for an outside audit
Choi is a vice president at a technology company and a licensed attorney, and serves as treasurer of a homeowners association board. He said his campaign is fully self-funded and listed an endorsement from CSEA Chapter 155, which represents classified school workers. He has two children at Hearst Elementary.
