Let's Build Trust.

I believe PVUSD can do better for students, families, teachers, and staff. Too often, major decisions are made with limited visibility into the reasoning behind them, too little consideration of alternatives, and insufficient focus on their impact on students. Trust is built through transparency, thoughtful decision-making, and accountability—not just good intentions.As a parent in this district, I’ve seen both what works and where families struggle to access the support they need. I’ve successfully advocated for my own children and helped other families navigate similar challenges. I’m running to help bring greater urgency, clearer communication, and stronger accountability to our district—while staying relentlessly focused on what matters most: improving outcomes for students.

If elected, four key principles will guide my service as a PVUSD School Board Trustee.

TRANSPARENCY

Clear communication of decisions, tradeoffs, and impacts affecting students, staff, and families.

ACCOUNTABILITY

Setting clear expectations, measuring outcomes, and following through with honesty and responsibility

DATA-INFORMED

Using evidence, outcomes, and community input to guide thoughtful, effective district decision making.

STUDENT CENTERED

Prioritizing decisions that directly improve student learning, support, well-being, and future opportunities.

Click to learn more about my policy priorities.

01Restore Trust and Improve Board EffectivenessBuild trust through respectful leadership, clearer communication, greater transparency, and timely decisions focused on students.Read commitmentsClose details
What guides my approach
  • Trust is earned through honest communication, respectful leadership, meaningful engagement, and follow-through.
  • The board’s role is to set clear goals, establish guardrails, allocate resources responsibly, and hold the district accountable—not to micromanage schools.
  • Strong boards do not avoid disagreement; they listen to understand, ask clarifying questions, identify common ground, and keep difficult conversations productive.
  • Public input should be invited while proposals can still change, but the board must also act with urgency and avoid unnecessary delays on critical issues affecting students and families.
What I will work to advance
  • Focus board discussions on students, employees, evidence, available alternatives, and the challenges we must solve together.
  • Clearly explain the reasoning, alternatives, costs, tradeoffs, timelines, and expected student impact behind major decisions.
  • Give employees, families, students, and affected communities meaningful opportunities to participate before proposals are finalized.
  • Improve district communication by publishing agendas and supporting materials earlier, expanding multilingual and digital access, and replacing excessive or duplicative districtwide messages with clearer, more relevant school-level communication.
  • Establish measurable goals, report progress publicly, and change course when a decision is not producing the intended results.
02Improve Student AchievementStrengthen literacy and mathematics instruction and deliver measurable year-over-year growth for every student group.Read commitmentsClose details
What guides my approach
  • Improving foundational reading and mathematics must be one of the board’s clearest and most urgent priorities.
  • PVUSD needs ambitious goals, evidence-based instruction, early support for struggling students, and honest public reporting about whether students are making progress.
  • Teachers and classified employees need manageable workloads, useful training, collaboration time, instructional support, and appropriate staffing to help students succeed.
  • Every student should receive a high-quality education and required services regardless of disability, family income, immigration status, home language, neighborhood, or a family’s ability to navigate the system.
What I will work to advance
  • Set ambitious, measurable literacy and mathematics goals and regularly report progress for every student group.
  • Improve data systems, early identification, and intervention so students receive support before they fall significantly behind.
  • Protect foundational instruction and expand targeted tutoring, intervention, and enrichment.
  • Give educators meaningful classroom support through instructional aides, mentorship, professional learning, and time to collaborate.
  • Ensure students with disabilities receive legally required services consistently and hold the district accountable when services are delayed or denied.
  • Strengthen language support for multilingual students and ensure they have full access to academic, enrichment, college, and career opportunities.
03Expand Career and Technical PathwaysGive students access to career education, internships, certifications, apprenticeships, and multiple pathways to success.Read commitmentsClose details
What guides my approach
  • Students need multiple, equally valued pathways to college, skilled trades, public service, and living-wage careers.
  • Career and technical education should receive the same respect, visibility, and investment as traditional college-preparation programs.
  • Every student should graduate with a realistic next step connected to their strengths, interests, and goals.
  • Programs should reflect local workforce needs while preparing students for economic and technological changes, including automation and artificial intelligence.
What I will work to advance
  • Expand career and technical education, internships, apprenticeships, industry certifications, dual enrollment, and work-based learning.
  • Build stronger partnerships with local employers, unions, trade organizations, community colleges, and apprenticeship programs.
  • Develop complete pathways that allow students to move from introductory courses to advanced training, recognized credentials, and employment or further education.
  • Reduce scheduling, transportation, prerequisite, and capacity barriers that prevent students from participating.
  • Increase the visibility and recognition of career-readiness accomplishments.
  • Maintain strong college preparation while expanding practical opportunities connected to careers, trades, and adult life.
04Create Healthy, Future-Ready Learning EnvironmentsBalance technology with hands-on learning, physical activity, creativity, relationships, and meaningful community engagement.Read commitmentsClose details
What guides my approach
  • Technology should support learning without replacing human connection, creativity, communication, physical activity, or hands-on experience.
  • Students learn best when they feel safe, included, respected, and connected to trusted adults.
  • Access to mental-health support, enrichment, and a welcoming school environment should not depend on a family’s resources or ability to advocate.
  • Every student—including LGBTQ+ students, students with disabilities, immigrant students, multilingual students, and students from low-income families—should be able to see themselves reflected in school and participate without discrimination or stigma.
What I will work to advance
  • Establish evidence-based, age-appropriate expectations for classroom technology, cellphones, social media, and AI literacy while reducing unnecessary screen dependency and distractions during the school day.
  • Expand access to sports, arts, music, clubs, outdoor education, hands-on learning, and other opportunities that build capable, connected, and resilient young people.
  • Examine the effects of recent mental-health staffing reductions and increased caseloads and advocate for timely, accessible, culturally competent, and affirming support.
  • Strengthen anti-bullying protections, staff training, reporting procedures, and accountability when discrimination occurs.
  • Support school-safety approaches grounded in prevention, de-escalation, disability awareness, restorative practices, and legitimate student and family safety concerns.
  • Promote physical activity, nutrition education, healthier food choices, school gardens, mentorship, belonging, civic responsibility, empathy, confidence, practical life skills, and positive school culture.
05Build a Responsible, Student-Centered BudgetReplace recurring budget emergencies with transparent multiyear planning that protects classrooms, essential services, and workforce stability.Read commitmentsClose details
What guides my approach
  • PVUSD needs transparent, multiyear planning—not a recurring cycle of budget emergencies and reactive cuts.
  • Budget and staffing decisions should be evaluated by how they affect students, workloads, working conditions, essential services, and legally required supports.
  • Teachers and classified employees are partners whose expertise should inform decisions before proposals are effectively finalized.
  • Cutting staff should be a last resort, after the district has publicly examined responsible alternatives.
  • No group should disproportionately bear the burden of reductions.
  • Long-term financial sustainability should not create avoidable short-term harm to student learning, safety, well-being, or legally required services.
What I will work to advance
  • Require realistic multiyear planning that accounts for declining enrollment, rising costs, state-funding uncertainty, staffing obligations, and the difference between restricted and unrestricted funds.
  • Examine administrative costs, outside contracts, insurance expenses, vacancies, shared services, procurement practices, underused facilities, available funding, and alternative revenue before cutting student-facing positions.
  • Require the district to publicly evaluate and act on viable Sustainable Budget Committee recommendations rather than solicit community solutions and then set them aside.
  • Use reserves, when available, only as a temporary bridge to prevent immediate harm while sustainable solutions are developed.
  • Require proposed reductions to include a clear analysis of their effects on students, employees, workloads, equity, and legally required services.
  • Track whether savings and operational changes produce the promised results and change course when they do not.
  • Protect the educators, staff, programs, and services that most directly support students.
06Create Stronger, Sustainable SchoolsAlign schools and facilities with declining enrollment so PVUSD can concentrate resources, strengthen programs, and invest responsibly in campuses.Read commitmentsClose details
What guides my approach
  • PVUSD must adapt to declining enrollment, but consolidation cannot be treated as a simple cost-cutting exercise.
  • The purpose of changing school configurations should be to improve educational quality, protect essential services, support workforce stability, and direct more resources toward students.
  • A school’s aging infrastructure does not automatically make it the best candidate for closure. Buildings can often be improved with targeted funding, while strong academic outcomes, school culture, specialized programs, and community relationships take years to build.
  • Any proposal must consider educational and financial benefits, student outcomes, transportation, equity, specialized programs, neighborhood impacts, and the long-term consequences for families.
What I will work to advance
  • Complete a credible, transparent, long-term enrollment, school-configuration, and facilities plan.
  • Establish clear public criteria for evaluating consolidation and other configuration changes.
  • Require every proposal to document educational benefits, actual savings, implementation costs, transportation effects, equity considerations, and impacts on students and employees.
  • Meaningfully involve affected educators, families, students, and communities while options are still being evaluated.
  • Protect successful and specialized programs and direct documented savings toward students, staffing, and stronger educational opportunities.
  • Clearly account for existing Measure M funds, including what was promised, what has been completed, what remains, and how priorities were determined.
  • Identify facility priorities, costs, and independent oversight before asking property owners for additional funding.
  • Consider another bond only after PVUSD demonstrates responsible stewardship and presents a credible long-term plan showing how additional funding would improve schools.

My Story

I grew up in La Selva Beach, attended Starlight, Valencia and Aptos Jr., and graduated from Aptos High School. After spending nearly two decades studying and working internationally, I returned home with my husband to raise our family in this wonderful community. We are incredibly fortunate to live among so many amazing natural spaces — from the beach to the redwood forests — and that’s usually where you’ll find me with our kids when I’m not helping coach their soccer team.Professionally, I spent nearly two decades in global public affairs, managing communications and helping shape public policy focused on improving consumer safety. My work centered on translating highly technical issues into clear, actionable policy solutions; experience I believe is directly relevant to school board governance and improving district decision-making. I am also active in PVUSD’s special education community advisory committee and serve on the sustainable schools advisory committee, which is tasked with recommending updated school configurations to reflect our shrinking student population and maximize educational opportunities.As a parent in this district, including raising a child with disabilities, I’ve seen both what works and how hard families often have to fight to get their children what they need. That should concern all of us — because access to support and opportunity should not depend on how many resources, or how much time, knowledge, and advocacy a family can bring. I believe schools should support multiple pathways to success, including strong career and technical education opportunities alongside college preparation, so every student can build a future aligned with their strengths, interests, and goals. I’m running to help bring greater accountability, clearer communication, and stronger public trust to the district — because every student deserves a school system relentlessly committed to their success.

Endorsements

EndorsementsOrganizationsOrganizational endorsements of the campaign.View endorsementsClose list
EndorsementsCommunityCommunity leaders, public servants, parents, and local residents.View endorsementsClose list

Organizations and titles are listed for identification purposes only.

  • Michael WatkinsRetired Santa Cruz Superintendent of Schools
  • Greg LarsonVice President and Trustee, Area 3, Santa Cruz Board of Education
  • Minc RobinsonRuby Bridges Walk Organizer; Teacher of the Year
  • Jennifer HolmFormer Trustee, Area VII, PVUSD
  • Leslie DeRoseEducator and Former Trustee, PVUSD
  • Jennifer SchackerFormer Trustee, PVUSD
  • Vanessa Quiroz-CarterMember, Watsonville City Council
  • Janie BlackPresident, Parent Alliance, Rio Del Mar
  • Evan NelsonTreasurer, Parent Alliance, Rio Del Mar
  • Anna StuartPresident, Site Council, Rio Del Mar
  • Angelique GeigerMember, Site Council, Rio Del Mar
  • Angela ChapmanMember, Rio Del Mar Parent Alliance
  • Lily GerransBoard Member, Valencia Home & School Club
  • Gina VaggioliPVUSD Parent
  • Ashley WinnLa Selva Beach Resident
  • Roger PrinceFormer Educator and Resident, La Selva Beach
  • John FuchsFuchs Properties
  • Cliff NelsonOwner, Bay Bar and Grill
  • Ali McCourt TurhalHead of Brand & Product Marketing, ClassDojo
  • Peggy KaysenCPA
  • Ken KaysenPVUSD Graduate
  • Robin StockwellPresident, Friends of Nisene Marks
  • Jim AbendschanRetired CEO
  • Emily Hart CooperParent
  • Bill EilfortCommunity member
  • David Cooper
  • Steve Pilkenton
  • Marisa Dinolov
EndorsementsEducatorsTeachers, school employees, education professionals, and retired educators.View endorsementsClose list

Organizations and titles are listed for identification purposes only.

  • Edie AbendschanRetired Teacher, PVUSD
  • Caryn AllenTeacher, PVUSD
  • Keri AllenOccupational Therapist, PVUSD and Growing Adventures
  • Ted AltenbergRetired Educator, PVUSD
  • Alyssa AveyTeacher, PVUSD
  • Terra BaileyEmployee, PVUSD
  • Michelle Chapa
  • Gina ChekourasTeacher, PVUSD
  • Sarah DiBenedettoSpeech Therapist, Bradley Elementary School
  • Branan FreemanVisual Art Teacher, PVUSD — Starlight Elementary School
  • Jennifer GoodheartTeacher, PVUSD
  • Emily HalbigTeacher, PVUSD
  • Dr. Alison Hanks-SloanFormer Principal, Aptos High School
  • Kristin HartTeacher, PVUSD
  • Ryan JonesTeacher, PVUSD
  • Aine KahnLicensed Marriage and Family Therapist
  • Lindsey KentParent and Speech-Language Pathologist, PVUSD
  • Donna Le FeverTeacher, PVUSD
  • Marina MaldonadoTeacher, PVUSD; 2026 Administrator of the Year, Santa Cruz County
  • Debra MallardTeacher, PVUSD
  • Deborah MatlowTeacher, PVUSD; Aptos High Parent
  • Alicia PadillaTeacher, PVUSD — Bradley Elementary School
  • Ron SandidgeRetired Teacher and Administrator, PVUSD
  • Murry SchekmanRetired Administrator, PVUSD; Senior Lecturer, SJSU College of Education
  • Jesse SherwoodTeacher, PVUSD
  • Monique SilvaTeacher, PVUSD
  • Rebecca SteinbergTeacher, PVUSD
  • Leah Sugarman RodriguezParent and Educator, PVUSD
  • Ernie TavellaEducational Leadership Coach
  • Dolores TeutschelRetired Teacher, PVUSD

Upcoming Event

Mads & Wags

Sunday, September 27 · 1PM
Seascape Park

Join Mads for a dog-friendly picnic social! Bring the whole family, meet Mads, enjoy lunch, and take a break with neighbors and friends.Lunch will be provided. Please RSVP to guarantee your spot.

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Paid for by Mads Realmuto for PVUSD School Board 2026
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Paid for by Mads Realmuto for PVUSD School Board 2026
FPPC# 1491107