Three candidates with markedly different professional backgrounds are vying for the Trustee Area 1 seat on the Pajaro Valley Unified School District Board of Trustees in the Nov. 3 election.
College admissions counselor Meilin Obinata, general contractor Robin Sukow and retired educator Andrew Goldenkranz are seeking to replace Trustee Joy Flynn, who is not running for reelection. Area 1 covers Corralitos and more than half of the Aptos area.
The winner will join a board confronting ongoing financial challenges, contentious labor negotiations and discussions about possible school closures, while also dealing with divisions among trustees that have frequently spilled into public meetings.
All three candidates said the board needs to improve how it conducts business, but they differ considerably in the experience and priorities they would bring to the position.
Meilin Obinata
Obinata said her candidacy is rooted in her own experience in PVUSD schools, where she attended Mar Vista Elementary, Aptos Junior High and Aptos High School before earning a mathematics degree from UC Santa Cruz and a law degree from Mitchell Hamline School of Law.
“This is my school district,” she said. “I feel very strongly about education.”
Obinata, who does not practice law, said her own education was possible because of local public schools and described it as a gift she wants to help preserve for future students.
She has worked as a college admissions counselor for 14 years and has helped students ranging from those struggling with failing grades to those applying to some of the nation’s most selective universities. She has also volunteered with students with reading difficulties and those with individualized education programs and 504 plans.
Obinata said one of her biggest priorities would be pushing PVUSD to develop a long-term strategic plan that could guide its spending and other decisions.
With the district facing difficult financial choices, she said trustees should first establish clear goals and then determine where limited resources should go.
“If you don’t have a plan, it’s really hard to make decisions about money except for reacting to certain phenomena,” she said.
Obinata also called for making district financial information easier for the public to find and understand. Disagreements over finances, she said, become more difficult when trustees, employees and the community do not begin with the same information.
She said her experience as a civil rights investigator and mediator could also be useful on a board that has struggled with internal conflict. In that work, she investigated complaints and helped people on opposing sides of contentious cases reach compromises.
Obinata said disagreement itself is not a problem, but trustees need to identify areas where they agree and build from there.
“What is important is for people to be able to just get work done,” she said. “Are we problem-solving so that we can get work done?”
Robin Sukow
Sukow, 79, said he is running as a concerned Aptos resident, businessman and parent who wants the district to put greater emphasis on basic academic skills.
Both of his sons attended Valencia Elementary, Aptos Junior High and Aptos High School, and he now has grandchildren approaching school age.
Sukow is a general contractor and is semi-retired from Paradigm Builders, a third-generation local business. He said that experience has taught him to work within budgets and make pragmatic decisions.
He described himself as “old school” and said schools should concentrate on making sure students can read, write, communicate and perform at grade level.
“I believe that a lot of the social issues that we deal with at school interfere with the educational process when it comes to learning the basics,” he said.
Sukow said many cultural and social issues should primarily be handled by families rather than schools. He cited proposed state legislation involving condom access for students and a new state recognition of Diwali—the Hindu festival of lights—as examples of issues that concern him.
Sukow characterized the Diwali law as requiring schools to close and develop curriculum around the holiday. The law, which took effect this year, instead allows school districts to close for Diwali if the governing board and employee groups agree and permits—but does not require—schools to hold activities recognizing the holiday.
He also cited Senate Bill 608. The legislation, still pending in the Assembly, would require schools to allow condoms to be made available to students in grades 7-12 through specified health and educational programs and would prevent school-based health centers from being prohibited from making condoms accessible to those students.
Sukow said his larger concern is keeping schools focused on academics.
He pointed to student performance on state assessments as evidence that PVUSD needs to improve and said graduates should leave high school prepared for college without requiring remedial classes.
But Sukow said college should not be the district’s only goal.
As a longtime tradesman, he strongly supports career technical education and said schools should expand opportunities for students interested in construction, automotive work and other trades.
“Having our students capable of going to college if that’s what they want, but also capable of going into the trades,” he said.
Sukow also criticized the conduct he has witnessed at board meetings, including interruptions and off-microphone comments.
“There’s an incredible lack of decorum,” he said, adding that he hopes to bring a “non-emotional influence” to the board.
Andrew Goldenkranz
Goldenkranz enters the race with 37 years in public education as a classroom teacher, administrator, teacher trainer and developer of school improvement programs.
He began his teaching career at E.A. Hall Middle School in Watsonville and later spent 10 years at Aptos High School. He subsequently worked in Santa Cruz County and Fremont Union High School District in Santa Clara County.
His campaign website says he has lived in Aptos since 1993, spent nine years working in PVUSD and is the parent of two district graduates.
Goldenkranz said his experience has taught him how to identify successful classroom practices and use data to improve student outcomes.
While working in PVUSD, he said, he helped rewrite standards and assessments for high school biology, reducing the rate of D and F grades from about 12% to 4%. He later participated in a similar effort in Cupertino that reduced the rate from about 9% to less than 2% in one cohort.
He attributed those improvements in part to project-based learning, meaningful assessments and allowing students to revise work rather than treating an initial failure as the final result.
“There was always a pathway to improvement,” he said.
Goldenkranz said PVUSD needs greater financial transparency, more attention to student achievement and improved relationships among trustees, employees and administrators.
He has watched several recent board meetings and said trustees are not always modeling the behavior expected from students.
“The adults in the system are not modeling the behavior that we expect to see from kids,” he said.
Goldenkranz suggested creating a board covenant or code of conduct governing interruptions, yelling and other behavior.
He also said district proposals should receive more public, employee and committee review before reaching trustees for a vote. Too often, he said, unfinished proposals reach the board and become bogged down in lengthy debate.
Goldenkranz said the district must also confront its financial problems with greater transparency, including involving employee unions earlier in discussions.
He said discussions about potentially closing schools should focus not simply on cutting costs, but on what educational opportunities could be created through restructuring. Simply moving teachers and students from one campus to another, he said, would not necessarily produce significant savings without a plan for the vacated property.
He also criticized what he described as PVUSD’s reliance on outside consultants, saying the district should develop expertise among its own employees whenever possible.
“A strong school, a strong district builds a strong team on the inside and can therefore rely less on external help,” he said.
Goldenkranz said his campaign ultimately centers on rebuilding trust, improving transparency and keeping the district focused on students—priorities also listed on his campaign website.
“Kids are going to learn something every day,” he said. “The question is, are they going to learn what you’re trying to teach them?”
“Better teamwork, better transparency, stay positive,” he added. “I think that’s how we can make real progress.”
