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Alamo Elementary School parent Michelle Sinnott Petersen has launched a campaign for the school district’s Area 1 trustee seat, making her one of three candidates in the only contested race for the San Ramon Valley school board this year.
“I come to this position as first and foremost the mother of a 10-year-old with an Individualized Educational Plan,” Petersen told DanvilleSanRamon.
Petersen’s path as a parent and active volunteer with the San Ramon Valley Unified School District and her son’s school was preceded by a wide range of other endeavors. She is a retired firefighter and former professional mountain-biker, and currently works as a corporate event planner.
“My background as a firefighter instilled in me the ability to remain calm in stressful situations and always act with compassion in the most challenging circumstances,” Petersen said on her campaign page. “My career as a professional athlete taught me mental toughness, and a never quit ethic. My career as a corporate event planner taught me strong organizational skills and careful budget management.”
All of these are skills that Petersen believes are critical for the next new SRVUSD trustee to possess. In particular though, she emphasized her experience as a parent volunteer in the district — and the passion she’s discovered for public education in that capacity — as critical for serving on the board.
“I have found my passion and purpose in being an educational leader and student advocate within SRVUSD, most recently as president of Alamo Elementary School PTA,” Petersen said on her campaign page.
In addition to the work itself, Petersen pointed to the timing of her PTA presidency — from 2019 to 2022, during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic and associated challenges — as sound preparation to tackle the trustee role.
“During my tenure with PTA, I navigated COVID-19, spearheaded staff appreciation efforts, worked on the Anti-Defamation League ‘No Place for Hate’ campaign, introduced the Pacer anti-bullying campaign, led activities for ‘Words Matter Week,’ brought in motivational speaker assemblies, oversaw the Health and Safety plan for Alamo Elementary, served on the Site Council and co-chaired Alamo Elementary’s largest and most attended community event, the Hoedown, from 2018 to present,” Petersen said on her campaign page.
As a trustee, Petersen said would seek to use insight from this role to address issues she sees facing the district, including communications and transparency, financial health, and recruitment and retention of teachers and staff.
However, Petersen said that at the heart of her campaign was the belief that all students deserve quality education and other factors that promote learning. This is the motivation behind other talking points on her platform, Petersen said, such as safety, health and wellness amid challenging times for public education.
“Every student must feel a sense of safety and belonging to reach their full potential,” Petersen said on her campaign page. “We must continue to support programs that create safe emotional and social environments. We need to keep our schools safe. The most meaningful action we can take is to develop strong partnerships inside our schools and the greater community.”
Petersen faces two opponents in the race for the Area 1 trustee seat, which is soon-to-be vacated by longtime sitting Trustee Ken Mintz. Jesse vanZee, another district parent, was the first to begin his campaign for the seat, while Alamo lawyer Jerome Pandell is running for the board for a second time following a 2014 campaign.
More information on Petersen’s campaign is available at www.petersen.vote.
Editor’s note: This story has been updated to reflect that Pandell lives in Alamo and is running his second campaign for school board. Embarcadero Media regrets the error in the original story.
Ms. Petersen’s reign with the PTA was mired with a “my way or the highway” brand of top-down leadership that rubbed many the wrong way. Some of her communications from that time have been circulating including one that called for any PTA member that didn’t agree with school closures and remote learning to resign from the PTA! Could part of the current climate where finding classroom volunteers in part be from this mentality that the school volunteers must meet Ms. Petersen’s “purity test” before being allowed in the circle? Also, Ms. Petersen is a well documented participant in “Black Lives Matter” which has recently been outed as a financial scam where many of its leaders have been caught using the organizations finances to purchase lavish goods such as $6 million homes in California, among other things. School boards are non-partisan positions. There are many other partisan elected positions that would fit this very progressive liberal than a non-partisan position that is tasked with educating children without bias.
Matt Hoffman please stop lying. Michelle I look forward to following your thoughtful campaign.
I’ve know Michelle and have collaborated/worked with her in different capacities in and out of school over the past 6 years. I can attest that Michelle is an open minded leader, she has created strong partnerships with staff, teachers and parents, especially during her time as PTA president at Alamo Elementary. I think it is naive to think that school boards are apolitical governing boards. Introducing a partisan conflict point is aimed to detract from the true purpose of a local governing board. The goal of a nonpartisan election is not to remove all politics from governing, but to remove a conflict point that keeps the school board from doing its job. Conflict can be productive when it leads to informed debate and well thought out decision making. No matter the candidate, there are ideological differences about how to run schools and educate children. Michelle is fully capable of executing the work of governing, which includes, budgeting, planning, communicating with the public, etc., which is not as exciting as the hot-button divisive issues. The governing work is what actually impacts our school board’s outcomes. The best way to inform yourself about what a candidate stands for is to ask them.
LiLo – Ms. Petersen demanding resignations from PTA volunteers that didn’t share the same political views as her is hardly collaborative and is the exact type of partisan politics that belong far, far away from schools and educating children without bias. Perhaps Ms. Petersen would be petter suited for a political position where her extreme progressive views would be better appreciated? Regardless, the type of Progressive Pandering Petersen has engaged with to vary far left political groups is disturbing for a school board candidate.
Constant claims to hearsay statements are not reliable and do not constitute valid evidence. I served on the PTA for the two years when Michelle was PTA president and I never received this email that keeps being alluded to and touted as proof as to what type of leader Michelle is. Disparaging remarks about Michelle are aimed to make substantive debate impossible and turn this election into a existential debate over ideological superiority. Now more than ever it is up to local government boards, like school boards, to show that governing is still possible despite societal divisions.