Several candidates running for a seat on the Pajaro Valley Unified School District Board of Trustees for the November election met July 25 at a forum hosted by the Pajaro Valley Federation of Teachers.
Roughly 30 teachers attended, alongside several candidates for school board, including Eriberto Estrada and Incumbent Daniel Dodge Jr, both running for Trustee Area Four, and Mads Realmuto, running for Trustee Area Seven against incumbent Misty Navarro, who sent in a pre-recorded statement.
The meeting served as an initial introduction to who the candidates are, and what their priorities will be if elected.
Joy Flynn, who currently holds the seat for Area 1, has said that she will not seek reelection. Andrew Goldenkranz and Meilin Obinata showed up at the Saturday forum for that seat
The Pajaronian has reached out to trustee Olivia Flores to ask if she plans to run for reelection to Area 5, but she did not respond by publication. As of July 30, nobody has filed to run for that seat, but Jennifer Schacher, who previously sat on the board, has expressed interest.
Meilin Obinata
Obinata traces her decision to run for school board to a day spent decluttering her home, where she describes an a-ha moment that convinced her to run.
“One thing about decluttering is that it means you have to deal with past mistakes,” said Obinata. “ I do think we need some of that in the district, decluttering of ideas.”
Obinata grew up attending PVUSD schools and has worked in academic counseling from San Francisco and the East Bay to Santa Cruz and Monterey County. She says she’s seen how different districts operate, and is prepared to bring that background to PVUSD, working closely with students and teachers.
“As people working in the district, you actually have a lot of evidence about what is working, and what is not working,” Obinata said, addressing the crowd of teachers. “I believe part of what makes for a successful board is to receive evidence from you. There is no schooling without teachers. There just isn’t.”
Andrew Goldenkranz
Andrew Goldenkranz worked for 37 years as a science teacher, starting at EA Hall Middle School and eventually moving to work in the South Bay. Now, he wants to translate those years of experience into a position as board trustee.
Goldenkranz says he would advocate for an administrative hiring freeze until contract negotiations with the teacher’s union are settled. He also said he would dip into the board’s 10% reserve funds to solve pressing issues immediately.
“When we were raising my family, it was nice to put money in savings, but sometimes you couldn’t do that, because you had more important needs to do,” Goldenkranz said. “So I think it’s time to settle the current issues now.”
Like Obinata, Goldenkranz can also recall the day he decided to run for trustee. While on business in Sacramento, he ran into Tony Thurmond, the superintendent for the state of California, who he knows from past work.
Thurmond had one question for him: “What the F is going on in Pajaro Valley?”
Having recently retired from education, that interaction convinced Goldenkranz that PVUSD is a district that needs support, which he plans to do by focusing on student achievement and pragmatic budgeting. He says another big priority will be avoiding what he describes as the “histrionics” of recent meetings.
“The board, among other things, needs to model the kind of behaviour we expect from ourselves and kids,” Goldenkranz said. “That’s simply not happening.”
Candidates have until August 7th to file paperwork to appear on the November ballot.
