By Laura Kuang @LAURAKUANG
Four candidates will join the elections of Pleasanton school board to compete for three open seats on the school board. Current board members are Jamie Hintzke and Valarie Arkin, and two new candidates with great experience in working for Pleasanton school system, will join them after the elections on Nov. 8.
“The school board has five members overall, elected to four-year terms. It makes decisions for the school district, which includes public elementary, middle and high schools in Pleasanton,” said Jeremy Walsh, the associate editor of editorial department in Pleasanton Weekly News.
Board member Chris Grant is stepping down after serving nearly ten years. He chose to continue his career at Kaiser Permanente. Before leaving, he emphasized that the school board needs a new change since different people will be members of school board.
Current president Jamie Hintzke said that she will enter the re-election campaign. Hintzke, president of the Pleasanton study board, was a vice president for the Alameda County School Boards Association for three years, and harvested a lot of experience from her work in the past. As president, she wants to give students an innovative education which triggers their best potential and creativity.
Another current incumbent is Valerie Arkin, who has volunteered for Pleasanton municipal school system for a long time. Lobbying for the communication between the district and the community is her job. She would like to make more progress in communications in the future to achieve her academic desires.
One of the two new candidates is Steve Maher, who has a good reputation. Although Maher retired from Hart Middle School as a principal, he continues serving as an interim-principal for four schools. As a longest-serving principal in Pleasanton, he has rich experience with dealing with different challenges and problems.
As a girls’ varsity basketball coach, he is great with getting along with students. From lots of people’s comments on Pleasanton Weekly News, someone says that “He will bring a wealth of experience and innovative thinking to the board who faces tremendous challenges from the State and from our fast growing student population.” Being a responsible principal is the priority for Maher.
Kathleen Ruegsegger used to be a member of the school board. After school board president Earnestine Schneider died in 1990, she filled his position until 1993. On the other hand, Ruegsegger has been involved in K – 12 education for nearly twenty years, and she has three years’ experience on the school board. Ruegsegger believes that the connection between the district and the city can have a great influence on the public schools, such as working on the shared projects to benefit the residents greatly who pay for taxes. No matter curriculum or facilities, Ruegsegger wants to make them excellent and she puts the entire community first.
Registered voters can start voting on Oct. 10, and the deadline for people who have not registered to vote is Oct. 24. Voters will receive sample ballots from school board elections. The results of the ballot box decide which three of them will win the seats in the school board.
Study board is like a link, a bridge, an association for all municipal schools. They have a plenty of duties who need to be responsible for public schools, such as giving students the greatest education, integrating the community’s view with what students should know on time and so forth. In a nutshell, to serve municipal schools’ education wholeheartedly is the study board’s significant aim.
