|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
The members of the Belmont-Redwood Shores School District board should be set this week, even though Election Day is still days away. That’s because the three open seats on the board either drew no challengers or had a shortage of qualified candidates for the Nov. 3 elections.
One of those seats is expected to be filled by appointment at a special board meeting Thursday, Oct. 22.
Belmont-Redwood Shores board President David Koss will return for a second term as no one filed to challenge him for his Area 3 seat.
“I joined the board four years ago and decided to run again because I have loved serving our community and its students and feel I have more to accomplish,” Koss told the Pulse in an email. “I want to continue providing steady leadership and governance grounded in thoughtful, data-driven and fiscally responsible decision-making.”
He plans to continue “work on curriculum, enrollment trends, technology in the classroom and students’ social-emotional learning,” Koss said. “I am particularly excited about our Profile of a Learner work and how we prepare students to think, innovate and advocate in an ever-changing world.”
The Profile of a Learner program is a comprehensive strategy that includes creating a multi-year plan to incorporate skills and goals into a student’s educational experience.
The would-be contested race was for Area 1, but only Charles Shagong qualified to run for that seat after his potential competition, Tzuhua “Tony” Hung, did not complete the required paperwork to be a candidate, San Mateo County Chief Elections Officer Mark Church said.
Shagong could not immediately be reached for comment.
Three vie for board appointment
Area 5 was also up for election, but no one filed to run for that seat. As a result, the board is scheduled Thursday to appoint someone by majority vote to fill that vacancy after reviewing the applications of and interviewing three eligible hopefuls.
The district said the three are: Mirela Cukovic, vice president of global automation and release for video-game company Activision; Eve Kulbieda, principal of Pinewood School’s upper campus serving grades 7-12 in Los Altos Hills; and Rhut Vasavada, principal product manager for software company Adobe.
In her application, Cukovic said she has 25 years of experience “running large organizations that answer to boards and executive leadership, presenting strategy, defending budgets and being held to results I had committed to in advance. I know what that accountability feels like from the receiving end, and it would shape how I ask for it.”
She has also served as “a regular classroom and event volunteer throughout both of my children’s years in the district,” Cukovic said. “It has given me a ground-level view of how district decisions land in a classroom and how much work it takes at each site to make them succeed.”
Kulbieda has worked in education for more than 20 years both as a teacher and administrator, she said in her application. She has experience in public, private and international educational systems and served across all kindergarten through 12th grades.
“I believe in public education as a place where every child has the opportunity to self-actualize and thrive given the right support and systems,” Kulbieda also said. “I believe deeply in educational equity and the right to education, and being a board of trustee member for BRSSD is a way for me to give back to public education in a meaningful way.”
Vasavada cited his professional background as a product leader as giving him “substantial experience working across organizations, setting strategy, establishing measurable goals, managing resources and bringing different stakeholders together around complex problems,” he said in his application.
With the district grappling with ongoing budget constraints and declining enrollment, Vasavada said, “I see an opportunity for the board to take a long-term view: Preserve what is working, be honest about what is not sustainable and make thoughtful decisions about where our limited resources can have the greatest impact on students.”
In the current fiscal year, according to the district, it is contending with a deficit of up to $5.7 million and planned on using reserves to help bridge the gap.
