School board candidates debate the issues at Livermore Vine forum

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The district’s budget, first-year priorities and sexual education proved to be among the divisive topics during the Livermore Valley Joint Unified School District Board of Education candidates forum last week.

In attendance were hopefuls Tara Boyce, Deena Kaplanis, Jean Paulsen, Maggie Tufts and Christiaan VandenHeuvel attempting to earn the community’s vote. Candidate Amanda Pepper was unable to attend for scheduling reasons, but submitted a statement in her absence.

The participants found some common ground on collaborating with teachers, supporting students’ mental and physical well-being, cellphone usage at school and early marks for New Superintendent Torie Gibson.

The six candidates are competing for two at-large seats on the school board that are fully wide open, with incumbent Trustee Kristie Wang running for Livermore City Council instead and Trustee Yanira Guzmán not seeking reelection for personal and professional reasons.

Held in the LVJUSD boardroom and livestreamed on the evening of Sept. 19, Livermore Vine publisher Gina Channell Wilcox and editorial director Jeremy Walsh moderated the forum. Questions for the candidates were solicited before and during the event.

To open the program, candidates were each allowed two minutes to introduce themselves and their platform. 

LVJUSD parent Boyce said she will earn the community’s vote because she has a direct stake in Livermore’s public schools, a unique background in business and finance and child-centered values. 

Boyce said if she’s elected, “All students will have unfettered access to all learning materials necessary for the richest learning experience possible (and) learn in schools safe from physical and mental harm.”

Business owner Kaplanis, a second-time candidate who gave her opening statement next, commented on her support of students and families.

“I’d like to continue serving all the children and families in our community by implementing data-driven strategies that promote critical thinking skills, academic excellence and student achievement,” Kaplanis said.

Paulsen, a former LVJUSD student who studied political science in college and is now a graphic novelist, suggested hiring a grant writer to secure funds for the district and solving the book ban issue by putting warnings on the inner jackets of books for “naughty stuff”.

“Craft some kind of diligence program … that parents need to be accountable for what their kids are doing,” Paulsen said. “Lately there’s been situations where kids are being almost weaponized. They’re bringing weapons, they’re using social media accounts to do, basically, acts of domestic terrorism.” 

Pepper, a 12-year Livermore resident and parent of three LVJUSD students, values flexibility and open-mindedness as a leader. And she vowed to be a reasonable and responsible board member. 

“We have so many great programs in Livermore and we’re pretty good at serving our diverse community. But we can always do better and I want to help facilitate that,” Pepper wrote in her prepared statement read aloud by Walsh.

A student and family mentor for college and career readiness, Tufts shared her bilingual and bicultural upbringing in her opening statement, saying it has inspired her dedication to serving English language learners.

“I will encourage communication so that students (and) families will connect with teachers and staff in an inclusive and welcome environment,” Tufts said. 

Last to speak was VandenHeuvel, who immigrated to the U.S. at 20 years old and learned English during the transition. He has two kids who are LVJUSD alumni and a third at Livermore High School.

“I run on empathy. I run on opportunity for each student; I know, having a special needs background myself, how important it is that we include everybody,” VandenHeuvel told the audience. “I want to make sure every student feels like they belong and marginalized students especially, who get pushed out more and more.”

The forum then transitioned to the question-and-answer portion of the night.

As background for the first question, moderators noted that LVJUSD’s budget received a “qualified certification” from the state because it is projected to have insufficient funds for the 2025-26 school year. Candidates were then asked how the problem could be fixed. 

Kaplanis and Tufts suggested the district cut spending, and they agreed to keep the cuts away from students as much as possible. But Kaplanis focused on cutting unnecessary positions or positions “at the top”, whereas Tufts said that ineffective resources could be targeted.

Paulsen approached the issue from the revenue side, repeating the need for a grant writer. 

VandenHeuvel and Boyce put the conversation in context of the district’s recent approval of its 2023-24 unaudited budget actual financial report — which showed the general fund increased by about $141,000 last school year. This offers a much different outcome than expected by the third interim budget, which predicted the general fund to decrease by nearly $11 million in 2023-24.

Since the general fund balance will roll over into the 2024-25 budget, the previously expected deficit may change, Boyce said.

She added that as a boardmember, she wants to make sure financial fluctuations are entered into budget projections in as real-time as possible. “District-wide programs, away from the classroom and in the classroom, can also be evaluated for redundancies, so we can capture redundancies as they may exist,” Boyce said.

Candidates continued to differentiate themselves when asked about the changes they’d like to enact in their first year on the Board of Education.

Kaplanis, Tufts and Boyce centered their answers on interrelated parts of education. 

Tufts said she would focus on communicating with students and families to boost college and career readiness; Boyce would build an early literacy program for all students, and Kaplanis would study low student achievement and academic success and invest from there.

VandenHeuvel said he wants to focus on reducing phone-usage at school, helping teachers “with a policy that would assist them in getting rid of the smart devices in the classroom during the class day, so that students can see each other again, can interact with each other again, can interact with the material again and do not have a music library in their pocket every single day.”

Approaching phone-usage with a different tone, Paulsen reiterated her support of a due-diligence program.

“What I’m seeing is children hurting themselves, hurting others … to make Zuckerberg rich, to make Elon Musk rich? Who cares? They don’t own me. They don’t own you. You’re all adults. This is disgusting,” she said. “If you have stock in Meta, just take it out. Take it out right now … Save your children.”

With regard to the board’s relationship with teachers and their union, VandenHeuvel, Boyce and Kaplanis agreed that collaboration is a necessity. 

At the same time, VandenHeuvel said discussion might be needed in opposition to zero period or in support of the new semester schedule. 

And Boyce said that the union needs to challenge the district to provide more resources for teachers.

Tufts explained her approach as more centered on individual teacher needs. “Let’s listen to what the teachers want … let’s work directly with them before we talk about ‘what are we going to work with the unions.’ Yes, we do have rules, we will follow it, but let’s work with our teachers,” she said.

Paulsen claimed there are no problems between the school board and the union, so nothing needs to be changed.

Next up, candidates shared their opinion of how the district has addressed the mental and physical well-being of students as well as what can be done to better support the students. 

Boyce suggested expanding programs for teachers to learn how to implement wellness techniques into their daily curriculum. 

Kaplanis even recommended making wellness classes for students. “We need to be able to have therapeutic courses as part of curriculum, so that everyone can benefit. Nobody is being singled out,” she said. “I also think that we need to have anti-bullying practices.”

Tufts located the solution in teaching kids how to communicate. She also voiced her support of events like Unity Day, National Bullying Prevention and Awareness Day, as beneficial to students’ mental health. 

VandenHeuvel said he’s seen teachers become increasingly trained around the topic of mental well-being. He also suggested that well-being be addressed through effectors like phones, social media, availability of guns in the house and bullying. 

Paulsen repeated her support of a due-diligence program.

The candidates were also able to bring their legislative interest to the forum and their position on the No. 1 state education bill they’re following. Suggested topics included LGBTQ+ student safety, parent notification of gender identification, book removals, ethnic study requirements and social media regulations.

Tufts said she supports the LBGTQ community and student privacy and that since students’ home situation is unknown, keeping students safe means keeping their gender or name change private. 

Boyce voiced a similar opinion in support of protecting students’ right to use preferred pronouns at school without telling parents. She also expressed her support of Assembly Bill 3216 on limiting student use of cellphones at school.

On the topic of removing books, Boyce said, “Books provide mirrors to our children, to our LGBTQ communities, our Mexican communities, our Black communities, etc. They need to see all of that in the library, so they’re reading stories about themselves and learning about their history.”

VanderHeuvel also opposed censorship of books, especially for older students. Books allow them to stretch their minds and learn about other people’s opinions, so they develop their critical thinking skills, he said.

Paulsen said she agreed that book-banning is bad.

Kaplanis answered the question on policy by expressing support for communication with parents and families. “I follow a lot of these bills and how it aligns with our district, considering our LCAP goals of providing an ‘engaging, clean and healthy, physically and emotionally safe environment to support learning at the highest levels’ and also to ‘enhance parent and community engagement and communication.’ Any of the bills that directly oppose or collide with this is concerning,” she said.

To follow up, an audience-suggested question asked how the candidates will involve parents in decisions about curriculum on topics like sexual education, gender identity and diversity.

“When it comes to all these issues, I think it’s really important that we follow the science,” VandenHeuvel said, adding that parental feedback is really important. 

Tufts and Boyce agreed that sexual education is vital. 

It is part of a state-directed curriculum and parents can opt-out, Boyce explained. “The school has a responsibility to impart information to the students so that they can stay healthy,” she said.

Tufts suggested educating families about why sexual education is part of the curriculum and prompting parental feedback through methods like surveys.

Paulsen expressed full support of sexual education too.

However Kaplanis did not voice for or against specific topics being taught in school. Instead, she said parental comments will inform the curriculum to represent the community and its values.

As the nearly two-hour forum concluded, candidates were offered the chance to make closing statements. 

As a boardmember, VandenHeuvel said he wants to bridge many communities and focus on shared beliefs to move forward. 

Tufts expressed her strong advocacy for all families and support of diversity and inclusion.

Paulsen recommended a graphic novel class be introduced to schools. 

Kaplanis said she’ll work for the community with an open mind. 

And Boyce said she’ll do everything she can to support teachers. 

To see the full event, including candidates’ opinions about Gibson, responses to LVJUSD lagging behind Pleasanton and Dublin high schools and ideas for addressing equity across Livermore campuses, watch the recording on Livermore Vine’s YouTube page.

This forum was hosted by Livermore Vine, with logistical support from Livermore Indivisible and help with the venue and video-recording from the school district.

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