PUSD Area 3 incumbent, challenger face off during Weekly candidate forum

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Pleasanton Unified School District Trustee Kelly Mokashi leaned on her first-term experience over the past four years during a public forum last week where her opponent, Donalyn Harris, made her own arguments for why she believes she is the better candidate for the contested Area 3 seat.

The two participated in the hour-and-a-half debate in the district boardroom on Sept. 25 where, in front of about 30 people, they responded to questions from Pleasanton Weekly moderators Gina Channell Wilcox and Jeremy Walsh.

This is the first time the Area 3 seat, covering central Pleasanton, will be decided by a trustee-area election after PUSD away transitioned from at-large elections, which is how Mokashi originally won her seat in 2020. The two Area 4 candidates also took part in the forum; incumbent Board President Mary Jo Carreon, who was the only candidate to file for Area 1 this year, did not debate but did watch from the audience.

Mokashi is a longtime educator and former adult member of the city of Pleasanton’s Youth Commission who currently works at Fremont Unified School District as a community school coordinator at Cabrillo Elementary School. She is a seven-year resident of Pleasanton and has three kids attending two schools in Pleasanton.

During her opening statement, Mokashi said she is running for a second bid on the board because she not only has the wealth of knowledge regarding the job as an incumbent and as an educator for the past 30 years, but because her work as a trustee is not done.

“I have three … priorities,” Mokashi said. “Impactful education for our students, engaging with all of our students with real life learning (and) meaningful assessments and third, ensuring every child has access to a quality education.” 

Harris is a Pleasanton native, longtime member of various parent-teacher associations across the district and a former substitute teacher for nearly 10 years who also served on the PUSD Superintendent’s Budget Advisory Council in 2020 and as the president of the Pleasanton Parent Teachers Association Council from 2020 to 2022.

Harris said in her opening statement that she is running for the Area 3 seat because as a product of PUSD who has her own kids now attending the same schools she did growing up, she is deeply invested in the success of the district.

“I look forward to bringing my extensive knowledge and experience to work and advocate for the residents of trustee Area 3 — for all of Pleasanton’s students, family, staff and community members,” Harris said. 

Harris is a homegrown Pleasantonian who served on the Pleasanton Partnerships In Education Foundation Board of Directors and was in the classroom as a substitute teacher from 2015 until earlier this year. She said she has helped raise hundreds of thousands of dollars through her work on the PPIE and through grassroots efforts with community members.

One example included her work with other parents who are campaigning to state legislators to find another way to determine a district’s funding. Harris said the district’s current financial challenges will be difficult for the district to overcome as there will be some tough decisions coming up.

That’s why she said it’s important to find ways to get more money from the state and to find better ways to cut back on redundant programming at the district. 

When it came to talking about the budget, Mokashi focused a lot on her main takeaways from the recent Budget Advisory Committee update to the board at a special meeting the night before the forum. 

During her time on the board, Mokashi said she has always believed in doing what’s right for students and has not been afraid to stand alone during previous votes.

She said she is someone who pushes for financial oversight, which is why she helped initiate the budget meeting and why she believes it is important to look at things like district programs, how much the really impact students and cutting back on redundant spending so that the district keeps the upcoming budget cuts as far away from the classroom as possible — which was a similar sentiment shared by Harris.

Mokashi said the district also needs to do a full evaluation of not just staff and personnel, but of its services and operations in order to make the necessary changes and maintain the district’s fiscal solvency.

Another skill in Mokashi’s repertoire she said she has is the managerial experience of firing and hiring personnel, which she said is particularly important for this seat because the new board will have to hire a new permanent superintendent following the departure of David Haglund this summer.

She said some of the characteristics she would like to see in the district’s next superintendent are integrity, transparency and the ability to listen to all educational partners. Mokashi also said the district’s next leader needs to have a vision for PUSD and must be someone who will focus on a bottom-up approach to their leadership style so every community member’s voice is heard.

Harris said she had built a strong relationship with Haglund and while she might not have agreed with him all the time, she was happy to see a lot of positive work done during his administration.

As for the next superintendent, she said she believes PUSD needs someone who is well-versed with the district’s financial needs, who will treat everyone as members of an invested partnership and who will act as a consensus builder.

One area Harris focused on during the forum was regarding equity in students’ educational experiences. 

She said she has served on the district’s Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Committee, calling it an eye-opening experience in finding different ways to bridge the gap between students who might be disadvantaged or have different needs from their classmates.

Harris said while she appreciates PUSD’s equity policies over the last few years, they need to further more policies so every student has the same learning opportunities. She added there needs to be more of a focus on teaching different cultures and ethnicities in order to bridge those gaps as well.

Mokashi also applauded the district’s recent overhauling of DEI policies, noting the most recent one regarding hate speech and the use of the N-word at schools, and said it is good the district is engaging with the community and addressing their concerns.

However, there is still equity work left to be done to further support teachers, according to Mokashi. She also said as far as DEI work goes, it needs to be particularly meaningful at a classroom level, which is why she believes they need to continue discussing and assessing things like equity grading.

Mokashi said grading in particular is almost like a checkpoint — it isn’t an indicator of who the student is overall — so she supports things like retaking tests, which directly benefit one of her own kids.

But she said really it is the collaboration between parents and teachers that help ensure the success of a student.

Harris said the district could have done better in communicating the idea of equity grading. She said she has seen one concern in a classroom regarding equity grading but she also doesn’t think things like retakes are a bad thing because at least one of her kids is benefiting from it educationally.

She said just like how one of her other kids does not benefit from retakes, every student is different and equity grading more so helps understand how to best assess a student’s mastery of curriculum. That’s why she believes it’s important to level the playing field for all students so they can all be successful.

Apart from supporting students, both Mokashi and Harris championed their support for teachers, especially during the recent contract talks that almost led to the Association of Pleasanton Teachers going on strike.

Harris said she has been vocal in her support for APT during moments like when the district was proposing spending money to pay for substitute teachers if a strike was enacted by the APT. She said that she has supported teachers financially in the past and that she really believes in a partnership with educators who are directly involved in their student’s educational journey. 

She also pointed out her history of working at different school sites as a way of recognizing all the staff that it takes to run a school. 

Mokashi also mentioned her support of the APT and how she stood with teachers during their plight in getting better benefits in their labor contract. She said she was proud of her work in mending and building relationships with individual teachers and with the collective union.

She said as a former teacher, she knows it is important for the district to work with teachers and that she will continue to fight for them because it’s the right thing to do.

Mokashi said if she is elected, she will continue her policy work regarding kindergarten through second grade universal screening for reading difficulties, including the risk of dyslexia and the use of artificial intelligence in the classroom.

She said the district could be doing more to improve mental health supports for students as well as supports for their social and emotional well being. The district also needs to focus on the fact that they need more school resource officers, but also praised the recently completed safety and security measures from the 2016 voter-approved Measure I1, according to Mokashi.

As for Harris’ other goals, she said mental wellness is a very important subject but that the overall safety of students and staff at schools should be at the forefront of their district’s discussions.

It shouldn’t fall on neighbors to keep an eye out on schools and their children, no matter how grateful she is to those residents for doing so, according to Harris. She also said keeping literacy censorship away from PUSD as much as possible is another issue she is passionate about.

Harris reflected on how she lives in her grandparents house in Pleasanton and how her kids are attending the same schools she attended as a kid, which shows just how embedded she is in the community.

“In the grand scheme of things, this choice might not seem like it does mean that much, but it means a lot to me,” Harris said. “This place, these people, they mean a lot to me. They mean everything to me.”

For her part, Mokashi said that despite living in five different states throughout her life, she has made Pleasanton her home and that she has a strong conviction to serve her community and the students.

“We need to make significant change to take a look at what is not working and how do we become more fiscally responsible,” Mokashi said. “Why? Because our students deserve it.”

The Pleasanton Weekly presented the forum with logistical support from the Pleasanton PTA Council, PPIE and the district. A video recording of the event is available on the Pleasanton Weekly’s YouTube page.

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