(PLEASANTON, Calif.) – Candidates for Pleasanton Unified School District Trustee Area 5 debated the district's financial crisis, superintendent search, and school facilities, during a September 23 forum hosted by the Pleasanton Weekly. Candidates Thomas Choi and Karen Fletcher participated in the forum, while the third candidate, Brett Martinez, "declined to attend," according to moderator Jeremy Walsh. The forum gave the community a glimpse into the views of the board's candidates.
Photo Credit: Pleasanton Weekly / Thomas Choi Giving his opening statement
Topics during the forum included the district’s budget and fiscal crisis, leadership, and the state of school facilities.
While discussing the district’s budget, Choi acknowledged that PUSD is the only school district in Alameda County that has a negative budget certification. It is also one of only five districts in California with that certification.
Despite the district's financial problems, Choi said, “It is not as bad as...it seems." Choi believes that "wasteful spending" is the problem, particularly, the amount spent on consultants. According to the candidate, as he "dug into thousands and thousands of PUSD documents," he found that the district spends around $12 million on consultants, including for legal and public relations matters.
“The fact that there are contracts that are rubber-stamped, over $240,000 of contracts week after week that get approved,” said Choi. “That can’t happen, so I advocate that we stop wasteful spending.”
Fletcher believes that the PUSD has to maintain fiscal solvency and make sure that the district is not overspending. “I advocate for budget spending that we make sure that we’re only spending our money that we have,” said Fletcher. “So that we’re not overspending and that we don’t get into a position like last year.”
The topic of PUSD’s superintendent was also discussed, with Fletcher saying that the superintendent should be able to engage with the community and restore trust with stakeholders. “Qualities that I feel a superintendent should have are integrity and transparency, and they should have a high ethical standard and active listening skills.”
Photo Credit: Pleasanton Weekly / Karen Fletcher speaking about the Superintendent
Choi claims that the Brown Act, state rules regulating local governments, were created to “shine a light” on such things as the decisions of the school board. “I saw the board’s statement today claiming that the Brown Act prevents the district from releasing the superintendent’s retirement letter and proposed contracts,” said Choi. “I’m here to say that that’s wrong.”
“We are looking for a superintendent that is going to be transparent and that is going to solve the fiscal crisis that we are currently going through,” said Choi.
On the issue of school facilities, Fletcher said that the district does not need another bond for facilities. “We’ve been successfully building at many school buildings,” she continued, “Including the tracks at Hearst, PMS, the theater at Amador, and many buildings at Foothill and other schools.” Fletcher is open to hearing about the needs of other schools.
Choi expressed concern about the ALE expansion. “Money was provided by the voters, tens of millions of this in Measure I bond fund, for a new school to serve a new area of Pleasanton that’s building,” said Choi. “So PUSD already committed almost $7 million in soft management fees before breaking any ground and they spent almost 13 months working on these designs before reaching out to any member of that community that would be affected.
Both candidates will be on the ballot for PUSD Trustee Area 5 for the November 3 election.
To add to or correct any information in this report, please contact me at joel.m@lead4earth.org or leave a comment below with your thoughts.
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