Let the school bell ring! The deadline has passed, and four people have filed papers to run for the school board.
Incumbents Joan Buchanan and Bill Clarkson and newcomers Rachel Hurd and James McVay are vying for three seats on the San Ramon Valley Unified School Board of Education in the Nov. 7 election.
Incumbent Nancy Petsuch, whose term expires in November, decided not to run again.
“I’ve done it now for 25 years,” Pestuch, 60, said about her time as an administrator and a school board member. “It’s time to retire. It really is.”
“It’s time to get fresh ideas,” she said.
Among the prominent issues that have been a concern in the school district are improving special education; completing building projects at schools; enhancing the curriculum; maintaining fiscally conservative policies; and creating customer friendly rapport with parents.
The upcoming challengers said they want to build better services for special education students and parents.
“There’s definitely room for improvement,” said Hurd, 42, a San Ramon resident and a former engineer for McDonnell Douglass. “There are a lot of complaints from people. It’s a very difficult thing to deliver.”
“Special education needs a real metrics system,” said McVay, 43, another San Ramon resident, referring to tracking the progress of special education.
The incumbents said they, too, want improvement in special education services, but they also want to make sure that all building projects – such as construction of new school facilities funded by Measure A – in the district are finished.
“There are still some things I want to accomplish,” said Buchanan, 53, who has been serving on the school board for 16 years and lives in Alamo. “We have to follow (building new facilities) through.”
She said this is her last term if she is re-elected, and she will not seek another term.
Clarkson also said he wants to complete construction on new school buildings.
“I want to finish what we sort of got going – the Measure A construction projects,” said Clarkson, who resides in San Ramon. “During my eight years on the board, we built or are building seven developer-paid schools in the Dougherty Valley without costing the taxpayers a dollar.”
“I really enjoyed that process,” he said about being involved in decision-making on the school board.
