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Pleasanton school board member Valerie Arkin announced Monday that she will seek re-election to a third term on Nov. 8.
Arkin, who was first elected to the school board in November 2008, is one of three school board members whose terms expire this year. The two others, Chris Grant and Jamie Hintzke, have yet to say is they will seek re-election..
“As a parent of three children who went through Pleasanton’s public school system, and as a long-
time school volunteer, I understand the need to keep parents completely informed about decisions that will affect their children and that are being conducted using taxpayer money,” Arkin said.
“During my two terms on the board, I am very proud of the great progress that we have made in improving the communications conduit between the district and the community,” she added. “It is still a work in progress, but I will always continue to lobby for greater advances in the arena of communication.”
She said high academic achievement is her priority as a school board member.
“I will continue working to ensure that Pleasanton students have the programs that address their academic needs, as well as addressing their extra-curricular needs,” she said. “I believe that our students should graduate with the skills they need to succeed in a global economy and be prepared to be socially responsible citizens.”
Arkin, who has handled hundreds of school budget decisions during her two terms of office, said fiscal responsibility is another priority.
Among her other contributions during her tenure have been updating of district policies, initiating more reading intervention programs, having a member of the public serve on the audit committee, evaluating the district’s legal services and working with student board members to help them better understand their perspective in considering board decisions.
Arkin, who was chosen by fellow board members to serve as its president in 2011 and 2015, serves on the Special Education Local Plan Area board and the city of Pleasanton Liaison Committee and is a delegate for the California School Board Association.
She also served two terms on the Pleasanton Library Commission and is a past member of the board of managers for the Tri-Valley YMCA.
Arkin is a 23-year resident of Pleasanton and lives in the city with her husband Brian. She has three children including Chris, who works in the tech industry; Angela, a college senior, and Nick, a junior at Amador Valley High School.
Arkin holds a bachelor’s degree in Health Science from Cal State Northridge and a Master’s degree in Business Administration from California Lutheran University. She also completed the Governance Training program of the California School Boards Association.
For more information, sign on to her website at www.valeriearkinforschoolboard.com/
Valerie has represented the parents of Pleasanton so well, I am very happy to hear she is interested in running again! You made my day.
Donald Trump hack and slash approach to government has shown up on Arkin’s term.
She hired and fired the former superintendent, Ahmadi, who had disastrous results. She voted to support a proven sexual harasser, Vranish, to remain as a molester of teachers. She’s gutted the senior management and got rid of or rotated nearly all of the school principals. She also voted against an African American vice principal. She screwed up a state grant and had to return $5M back to the state. Money they will ask for YOU to pay next November when they put a bond measure on the ballot. Money mis-management. Watch our for your wallets!
Think of our schools in 2008 when all three got elected. Are we better off or have all of the school programs been gutted: Barton, the Calendar, Reading Specialist, the list goes on and on.
We need to get the politics out of our schools and get back to supporting the teachers in the classroom. I say get rid of all three of them: Arkin, Hintzke, & Grant. I am supporting new blood on the school board.
OGHU,
It sounds like our next president has gotten into your head like he has Obama and the other national socialists
Rotating positions through the district schools getting experience from elementary through high school and experiencing the complexities that come with each position is good training and good management.
In the industrial sector, I found that training in several positions worked well, saved money, reduced absenteeism, and instilled loyal high achievers.
The current lawsuit on the PUSD agenda in closed session tonight is about negligent supervision under principal Ken Rocha’s watch at Harvest Park Middle School. He is a shoddy administrator that runs an unsafe school. Along with the incident in the lawsuit for which PUSD is being used, last year a Caucasian student placed an African American student in the hospital by bringing to HPMS a drink laced with a chemical that he gave the African American student that put the African American student in the hospital.
This was after a science teacher at the school played a Youtube video that Ken Rocha approved to be shown to the school showing a near identical scenario.
Ahmadi’s reaction was to use one time money to put Ken Rocha in a promotion to a director level position at the district office. Under Ahmadi’s watch, she used promotions to try to keep incidents like this from being exposed.
Of course, now that the lawsuits have bee filed, she has flown the coop. But many of the bad staff she tried to protect remain.
Kathleen is apparently unaware of the incidents at HPMS.
We’ve got another lawsuit going on??? How many is that now?? I can’t even count because it’s all so hush hush. There seem to be several on going special ed lawsuits and payouts as well as the other civil stuff. We still have the lawsuit over the whole mess that went on at WG that should have been dealt with internally as a hr problem. I saw there was another lawsuit involving the foothills teacher who was paid to leave and was trying to limit the FOIA release of the documents surrounding her “investigation”. But that seems to have been quietly settled. Our legal costs are out of control. It seems to be hundreds of thousands every 8 weeks. We are desperately trying to save 14 dollar an hour jobs yet we pay millions to lawyers.
I agree with Kathleen Parvin was very inexperienced and didn’t have a good staff and we will be paying for that for years and years.
Court case related to Harvest Park Middle School RG15778366 – Alameda County Superior Court
Also there are three liability complaints from parents and an agency on this evening’s agenda as well.
The chemical incident also at Harvest Park Middle School where the police were called that resulted in the hospitalization was during May 2015.
I should have paid attention to which story these comments were located.
Staying on topic. I hope Valerie Arkin is reelected. She is honest. Down to earth. She is all about mending fences and not burning bridges. She responds when you contact her. She is shown time and time again that she is level headed and isn’t reactionary. She works hard. She is exactly the kind of person we need on this school board.
I endorse Valerie Arkin, she has done a great job for the PUSD community. I am glad she is willing to continue in this difficult role representing us.
OGHU, I’m pretty sure Arkin is one of five members of the board. So hiring Ahmadi, approved by many, is not hers alone. And to support the others, have you never seen someone good on paper and in an interview who then went on to fail? Ahmadi, at worst, was too inexperienced.
“She” did not gut management and rotate all the principals. Those changes were recommended by staff; and if what I’ve heard is true, with good reason. By the way, in what appears in hindsight to have been the better days at PUSD, rotating principals was the norm. I don’t know the reason for voting against an African American vice principal; do you? You make it sound like it was because the person was African American. If it’s the grant I’m thinking of, Village gym/cooking class, I’m glad they gave the money back. Not because Village shouldn’t have a better campus, but because taxpayers had not voted that this as a top priority. I’d also like to see some fresher thinking about the whole DO.
Seems to me the problems started in 2008 because of the superintendent. He padded his own retirement wallet and skipped merrily out of town before the fiscal crumbling began.
I’d like to hear what you think is lacking in supporting teachers.
I do not know the specifics at HPMS. Ahmadi was inexperienced and sought advice from people who did her no favors. I would not spend any time defending that administration.
What, I will be supporting Valerie’s campaign as well and for the reasons you pointed out.
Can someone please explain why the newly hired principal for Harvest Park was released from his previous position and was still given a job here in Pleasanton? Sounds like Drescher all over again. Our kids deserve better!
I’m looking forward to November to vote for a woman wo works hard to bring our community and school board together to work as a team.
We need someone who will support the development of children in the classroom. Teachers are a vehicle to that, but not the starting point.