Julie Caskey and I met at a Girls Leadership parent-daughter workshop in Piedmont.  I have also worked alongside Julie as a volunteer and an advocate when she was the President of the Advanced Learners Program Support (ALPS) parent group, promoting diversity and differentiated learning.

I felt compelled to announce my endorsement of Julie when I found out only two of the existing five board members have children in Piedmont schools now, those being in high school.  As a 25-year government executive and business owner, it makes sense to me that our community would want balanced viewpoints on our school board.  What it lacks right now is a current parent of the elementary and middle schools.  Our social environment and digital landscape have changed greatly in the past decade, so it is only wise that we have someone who understands the needs of young children today.

Here is why I support Julie Caskey for Piedmont School Board:

1. I have seen first hand how passionate she is about our children’s education.  Julie has volunteered at our schools full-time for the past seven years.  Her dedication is clearly unwavering.  She is also exceedingly capable.
2. Julie will be the ONLY school board member who has children in elementary, middle, and high school.  She is a fellow parent in three different schools in Piedmont and can represent the interests of a wide spectrum of parents.  She can help PUSD stay relevant and make sound decisions while improving accountability and transparency.
3. Julie’s qualifications speak for themselves.  After graduating from Columbia Law School, she dedicated herself to public service for 25 years when she could have worked anywhere else.  As a defense lawyer who advocated for children and minorities, she is simultaneously compassionate and tough.  When one of the school board’s main responsibilities is personnel management for the school district, it makes sense that we have someone who brings negotiation and legal skills to the table.

Join me in voting for Julie Caskey for Piedmont School Board on November 6^th.

Michele Kwok,   Havens Parent

We are writing to endorse Amal Smith for school board. Amal has deep roots in this community and demonstrated service. Before being elected to the board in 2014, she volunteered in small and big ways from Beach to PHS to the Piedmont Education Foundation. Her experience from a career in higher education financial management and administration together with her volunteer work mean Piedmont will be served by someone with strong and relevant skills.

Amal is smart and thoughtful, dedicated to public service and our children and their families. She is committed to stakeholder engagement and knows how to make reasoned decisions when there are differing opinions. Please join us in voting for Amal for school board!

Matt & Margaret Heafey, Piedmont Residents

I’m voting for Julie Caskey for the School Board, and I’d like to tell you why—she’s effective at getting things done for our kids.  Having four kids of her own spanning Piedmont’s elementary, middle, and high school, Julie is 100% vested in our schools.  She also understands a personalized approach is critical to unleashing each child’s potential.

I’ve worked with Julie for the past eight years as a fellow board member of Piedmont ALPS (Advanced Learner Program Support). As president for two years, she brought stellar organization, a collaborative style, and a relentless drive to implement changes that will better prepare our kids for the world they will inherit upon graduation.

Julie gets things done.  She raised money and helped create a position for K-12 called a differentiation coach. As a result, Amy Symons Burke now works with teachers and students to create differentiated learning plans, and gain access to resources to support those plans–whether the students are advanced, challenged, or just need something different, as many kids do. Julie was also an instrumental math task force member, implementing a new compression math option for 6^th graders. We have amazing teachers in Piedmont. Julie works to make sure they have the support and resources they need to help every child reach their potential.

As our teachers know, best practices in education are changing and evolving rapidly.  Our teachers are no longer standing at the front of a classroom, lecturing students.  Learning is interactive, collaborative, differentiated.  Chromebooks enable new opportunities for learning, allowing children to better learn at their own pace.  As a current parent, an active member of ALPS, The Beach Parent Organization, and other school groups, Julie understands how these changes and opportunities should best be implemented.  She isn’t afraid to embrace change if it leads to better outcomes for our kids and pushes Piedmont to continue evolving so that we can maintain our standards as a top school district. 

Julie also worked for 20 years as a lawyer, assisting women, children, and families that had been marginalized, excluded, and left behind. Julie will bring the passion, intelligence, and energy she brought to her career to her role as a member of our school board.

I feel confident that having Julie on our school board will enable our schools to provide a better learning environment for all our students.  I hope you will join me in voting for Julie Caskey for school board.

Kim Fisher, Piedmont Resident

Megan Pillsbury and I worked together on the School Site Council at Havens more than a decade ago.  I am excited to hear she is running for School Board. We’d be lucky to have her as a trustee of our school system!  She will bring a unique viewpoint to the board, since she combines classroom teaching experience with the understanding of a parent, as well as taking a systemic perspective of education.

Though we didn’t know one another at the time, we volunteered to work together to research the impact and benefits of homework for elementary school students. She was not only interested in thoroughly researching the topic so our work would be grounded in facts, but also attentive to gathering input from all those invested in the topic – from students, to parents to teachers to administrators and other staff.  She worked extremely hard to understand people’s interests, and to think through how we might design a comprehensive and flexible program at Havens to meet as many people’s needs as possible, in the context of the evidence of what works best for students.  Then she worked to document and implement a system for homework at Havens – so that parents knew what to expect and why, so that teachers had supports in place and didn’t have to reinvent, so there was consistency from classroom to classroom from an administrative perspective, and so that students would have homework that made a difference in their learning.  I was impressed at every stage of this project: by Megan’s commitment and dedication, by her thoroughness, by her systems thinking, by her focus on meeting interests and needs.  Based on these, we delivered an excellent and comprehensive homework program at Havens.

Megan Pillsbury has the experience, talent and perspective to serve us well on the Piedmont School Board.

Dana Serleth, Piedmont Resident

I am writing to ask my fellow Piedmonters to re-elect Amal Smith to the Piedmont School Board. First, Amal has demonstrated here commitment to Piedmont’s children for over 18 years. Beginning as a room parent volunteer when her children went to Beach, Amal’s commitment continued as she served in leadership positions on the Beach Parents Organization, the Piedmont Education Foundation, as member of the District Budget Advisory Committee, and as a member of the PUSD Wellness Center Advisory Board.

With over twenty eight years of experience in the field of higher education, currently as the Associate Dean of Financial Affairs at the School of Medicine at UCSF, Amal brings a wealth of financial management experience to the school board. More importantly, over the last four years as a school board member, Amal has demonstrated her strong leadership skills as she has navigated a variety of issues including our district’s financial challenges and curriculum transitions.

Amal is working to serve ALL of Piedmont’s children and takes her responsibility very seriously. She is open, honest, and smart. We need people like Amal on our school Board. Please join me in voting for her on November 6 th .

Cathy Michelotti Glazier, Piedmont Resident

We have lived in this beautiful city of Piedmont for twenty years. As working professionals, we don’t have hundreds of hours to attend long board meetings and read dense financial reports filled with complex financial calculus.  That’s how Dr. Titan found out about the expensive financing schemes that did not improve the schools but cost taxpayers unnecessarily high interest charges.  We’re grateful to Dr. Titan, a father and mathematician, for devoting his time and interest on the finances of our schools since 2013.  He helped save us $26 million once and he might save an additional $26 million dollars!  Piedmonters will be well served with Dr. Titan on the School Board.

Sincerely,
Wayne Leong and Suzanna Chan, Piedmont Residents

The meeting opened the floor to any audience members who had something to say.

First was a man named Mr. Rick Schiller, a long-time resident of Piedmont. He brought up two seemingly-unrelated topics: pickleball and taxes. He was able to connect the two, as both relate to senior citizens in Piedmont. Fixing the tennis courts would really help the elderly who play pickleball there.

Schiller noted tax exemptions, similar to those in many other cities, would help relieve elderly financial stress. Giving tax exemptions would not have to cost the School District too much, if it was based on income.

PHS students Charlotte Diggatno and Mikaela Vawter addressed their grievances regarding the girls’ bathrooms. Bathroom stalls are not locking, causing people to get walked in on. The bad lighting in the 30’s building bathrooms are hazardous and have been broken for years. Becoming a major issue, the poor quality of the girls’ bathrooms needs to be changed. All Board members showed their support for the two girls, and promised to solve the problem.

A woman came forward to present new changes in Piedmont’s wifi configurations. New connections are being formed for better internet connection in Piedmont. The changes have already begun, but the lady wanted more  people to be informed. She came to the School Board meeting: to reach out to the schools, which are in the heart of Piedmont. Though her information didn’t directly pertain to the schools, she was able to get her message across to many.

The main event of the meeting came at the very end: the plans for the H1 PHS construction project. Costing millions of dollars, construction on the new STEAM building will begin in July next year, 2019. Plans for the new-three story building containing 20 classrooms, were shown by projection onto a drop-down screen. Mr. Palmer talked about the project in general, eliminating confusing details so all present could understand. Besides the new building there will also be a brand new theater and renovated field.

Because Witter Field will be under construction next May, the senior and 8th grade graduation will be held at the Paramount Theater. This is a hot spot for graduations, used by Bishop O’Dowd High School and many colleges. The theater contains more than enough room with 2800 seats. From the theater, buses will leave for Grad Night.

After the presentation of the complex blueprints, Ms. Pearson, the Board President, asked if any audience members wished to speak about the project.

Having a question prepared, I volunteered to go first. A few years ago, when the Alan Harvey Theater was renovated with new theater cushions, I took home some theater seats they were going to dispose of. They are currently reupholstered in my basement private theater. Slyly looking for an opportunity to get more free stuff, I asked the Board what will become of all the current theater seats, stage props, lights, desks, science supplies and more.

At first I was nervous talking at the podium, however, because I knew Mr. Booker and Max, it wasn’t so bad. Mr. Palmer, eager to answer my question, returned to the podium and explained that all the supplies will be salvaged, saved or sold. (I couldn’t take any of it.) Mr. Palmer’s answer satisfied my curiosity about where the stuff would be going. More PHS students asked questions about backstage crew at the new theater, new teachers and sports practices.

The meeting ended with the board members discussing their last two weeks. Many of them went to the Beach Pancake Breakfast that I volunteered at the weekend before.

At the very end, as people were packing up, I went up to the Board Members and showed them some of the “courtroom” sketches I made during the meeting. To keep myself focused, I usually doodle people and things around me. They liked seeing my drawings and joked that I should sit in every other week and make official sketches of their meeting. I was pleasantly surprised by how nice and friendly the Board Members were, despite their professionalism during the meeting.

On my way out of City Hall, I ran into PHS Principal, Mr. Littlefield. I asked him why he came to the meeting. “Whenever they talk about the high school, I’m usually there,” he told me as he got into his car. “This time I was here because of the new building designs.” I asked him what he thought about the meeting. “Typical,” was his answer. I thanked him and waved goodbye.

By Natalie Jeng, Piedmont High School Senior