Five candidates — all of whom are newcomers — are campaigning for two open spots on the Palo Alto Unified School District Board: Rowena Chiu, Nicole Chiu-Wang, Chris Colohan, Alison Kamhi and Josh Salcman.
The PAUSD School Board is tasked with approving an annual budget, collaborating with ad hoc committees, supervising the district superintendent and fulfilling goals outlined by the PAUSD promise, according to the Board Members Will.
The Post spoke with all five candidates about their experience and policy positions. Main priorities for candidates include mental health, achievement gaps and fostering trust between the district and the community. The election will take place on November 5.
Chiu’s biggest priorities are addressing sexual assault and mental health, which stem from her involvement with the #MeToo movement and the World Bank, she said. With four children in PAUSD, ranging from elementary to high school, she said her experience as a concerned parent helps her understand adolescents’ challenges.
“I’m inspired to run because I’m a concerned parent,” Chiu said. “I’m hoping that my lived experience and the story of my mental health struggles…will help me approach that issue in this district with far more granularity,” said Chiu.
As the former Ohlone Elementary School Parent-Teacher Association President, Chiu opposed the relocation of Room 19, a special education class. As a result, Chiu filed a complained with the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights for allegedly denying special education students the chance to attend the school, according to the Daily Post. She later helped draft a petition for Superintendent Don Austin’s resignation, citing a lack of transparency.
Chiu is also an advocate for mental health reform that focuses on proactive measures such asparental education that addresses mental health early, she said.
“We want to have a sustained and credible and in-depth Suicide Prevention Program, not one that spikes in response to actual suicide,” Chiu said. “We should look holistically at mental health issues and prevention as young as elementary school.”
To appropriately support and academically challenge every PAUSD student, Chiu hopes to implement flexible course laning and allow students to advance to the next “group” based on their mastery of skills. Placing students with varying talents and abilities in one classroom, she said, has proven to be a heavy burden on teachers.
“I would like to see us go back to the drawing board with laning,” Chiu said. “[Flexible laning] puts autonomy back in the hands of the student… to master a skill and move to another group with different problem sets.”
Chiu-Wang, director of the education nonprofit Dreamcatchers, former attorney and tech entrepreneur, aims to promote equity and mental wellness in education, she said. Her volunteer work with underprivileged students has fueled her passion for addressing the opportunity gap, she said. She previously ran in the 2022 board election and finished third, losing to current board members Shana Segal and Shounak Dharap.
Chiu-Wang believes that mental health services are underutilized due to stigma and a lack of accessibility, which she hopes to address through heightened parent education and guidance starting at the elementary level.
“I’ve heard that for various reasons, those services are not utilized right… whether that’s cultural stigma or appointment times being too short,” Chiu-Wang said. “We need to start talking to elementary school parents and help educate them… there should be info sessions or parent education around what their kid is or is not going to learn in that year.”
For Chiu-Wang, closing the opportunity gap in PAUSD schools would require the district to expand course offerings and promote community college for students seeking more rigor.
“I think we can work with teachers to figure out which [advanced] courses they want,” Chiu-Wang said. “We need to think earlier in the pipeline. … The opportunity gap starts before we even get them in kindergarten.”
Improving communication between the district and families is one of Chiu-Wang’s top priorities, she said. Chiu-Wang emphasized that listening openly and reaching compromise are crucial for progress, noting that a top-down approach often leads to resistance and hinders effective solutions, she said.
“None of our [teachers or administrators] are communications experts,” said Chiu-Wang. “With parents this passionate and active … communication needs to be a priority.”
Former Google engineering manager Chris Colohan has served in many leadership roles on the PTA for seven years and is now running for the school board with the intention of improving math education and budget decisions, he said.
His experience as a substitute teacher for all 17 PAUSD schools has given him a deep understanding of both the needs of students and teachers, which he plans to use to address gaps in math education at the elementary level, he said.
“We have students coming into our middle school math programs who are lacking some of the skills that are supposed to be taught at the elementary level,” Colohan said. “I’ve encountered students who don’t know things in grade eight when they’re studying algebra, like their basic times tables,” Colohan said.
Colohan has also pushed for a program similar to the “Every Student Reads Initiative”, which aims to have all students by the third grade at or above reading level in PAUSD, for math to help students who may not be up to their grade level.
In addition to his educational reforms, Colohan believes in rebuilding the trust that he feels has dissipated between teachers and the district. He advocates for better communication, increased transparency and collaboration on key issues between the district, parents and students.
“We’ve had a strong degradation of trust in the district, and this is at all levels. This is for the parents of the district. This is of teachers of the administration in the district,” Colohan said.
Colohan also highlights the importance of budget transparency which he hopes to address by making the district’s financial decisions more accessible. To do so, he would like to simplify complex budget documents to ensure clarity on funds allocations.
“I want to make sure that our budget and the budgetary decisions are really clear to anyone who might be interested in learning more,” Colohan said. “Increasing transparency will be a reflection on the entirety of the district, and I feel that’s the most important part of serving our students.”
Long-time district volunteer and immigration rights policy lawyer Alison Kamhi is focused on improving academic abilities and increasing school safety within the district, she said. Her campaign also addresses the issue of gun violence within schools, as she serves as the co-chair of Gun Violence Prevention for Palo Alto Council of PTAs, an organization that works across the district to support the needs of students and families.
Kamhi’s top priority is to provide academic opportunities for all students, especially in addressing concerns involving students who are either struggling or excelling.
“It’s crucial to me that all students are given the same set of tools to succeed academically,” Kamhi said. “We as a district can’t begin to promote equality if certain students are multiple grade levels behind in a specific area.”
Kamhi is also an advocate for bike safety, mental health services and anti-bullying measures. Kamhi’s safety initiative also targets reducing gun violence in schools by introducing firearm safety education throughout the district.
Kamhi’s third central priority is building trust and transparency between the district and families to enhance communication about decisions and feedback.
“Things like how decisions are made, why they are made, and who they are made by go a long way in terms of transparency,” Kamhi said. “Transparency is the ultimate building block for me that impacts students and teachers equally.”
Salcman, a parent and former educational entrepreneur, places a strong emphasis on delivering educational needs to all students, he said. As a father of three kids, including one with special needs, Salcman believes in fostering greater transparency between the district and families to ensure early childhood success for all students.
Salcman’s decision to run for school board was heavily influenced by his own experiences navigating the PAUSD education system for his third child, who has been diagnosed with hearing loss and autism spectrum disorder. Over the past six years, Salcman has been deeply involved in PAUSD as a PTA board member and pushed for the district to meet diverse student needs, he said.
“It was mainly my third child who really caused me to evaluate the needs of all students,” Salcman said. “I want to ensure all students have a safe space where they can feel at home.”
Salcman also advocates for improvement in communication and transparency among parents, teachers and the district to more effectively address concerns. Salcman would like to create more opportunities for students and families to give input outside of board meetings, which he feels are inaccessible to many people, he said.
For Salcman, mental health and wellness are also at the forefront of his campaign. He aims to destigmatize mental health issues and reduce academic pressures by promoting coping mechanisms in schools.
“My daughter is super type-A, very self-motivated and she puts a lot of academic pressure on herself,” Salcman said. “We need to make sure all students are maintaining some level of academics, but their health should come first.”
