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Sunol Glen School parent, resident and substitute teacher Erin Choin will be running for the open four-year seat on the small-town district’s Board of Trustees following the successful recall of former trustees Ryan Jergensen and Linda Hurley last month.
Choin told the Weekly she believes it is time for someone new like herself to step in so that the community can get a fresh start and move on from what has been a long year of arguing within the community.
“If people are feeling worn out and tired of what we’ve experienced over the last few months, I bring something fresh and new to our board,” she said. “That should be hopeful that we can move forward, that we can come together as a community and focus on what is important … the success of that school.”
Choin is a parent of three children who have attended Sunol Glen for the past five years. She recently moved to Sunol two years ago because she loved the community and area so much.
As a member of Sunol’s Community Club, the 4H club and the United for Sunol Glen recall campaign to remove Jergensen and Hurley, she said she is deeply invested in the well-being of the town and the school.
Choin is running for the seat previously occupied by Hurley and competing on the ballot against Jergensen, who was the only other candidate to file for the election for this four-year term through 2028. (Jergensen was recalled from an elected term from 2022 to 2026, the duration of which will be filled through an application process undertaken by Sunol’s current interim school board.)
With an academic background in early childhood education, Choin has been involved at the school as a volunteer and is employed as a substitute teacher. She said she works in the preschool and offers aid to many of the other classrooms.
She said she has also helped fundraise for the school and helped with other school activities like chaperoning, leading reading assignments and volunteering at the after school program.
“I definitely see what’s going on in the classroom,” Choin said. “I see the high caliber teachers we have and how our admin and our staff and our teachers really work to create an environment that supports the students.”
She said the connection to not just teachers, but staff and administrators as well, is one of her biggest assets she would bring to the table if she is elected because it would ensure positive collaboration between the board and the school.
“I have professional relationships with our administration, with the teachers, with the staff at our school,” she said. “Right there, I already have a foundation for understanding communication between the people that are most important to running our school.”
Choin said one of her priorities would be to shift the focus of the school board back to the needs of the students, which is something she said has been missing over the last year.
She said her number one priority in terms of student needs is continuing to offer, support and promote integrated modes of learning. She said that while she knows strong academics are at the core of the school, she understands that Sunol educated a diverse population of students who might not all learn the same, traditional way.
She said that’s why it’s important to focus on hands-on projects, field trips and computer learning as well as programs like music, art, gardening, home economics and band.
“These are programs that enrich students in ways that traditional classroom learning doesn’t reach,” she said. “Those are the things that Sunol Glen has always boasted, that is why we are a distinguished school and a school of choice.”
Another one of her priorities would be to focus on spending the Measure J funds in order to repair the school.
“The bond ensures that our school facilities can continue in a safe way for all staff and students that are there,” Choin said. “It’s very necessary and the sooner and more effective we are at getting those funds disseminated and getting that work done, the better off our student population and anyone in our school will be.”
However, she said there are a lot of steps in that fund spending process and she wants to follow those steps in order to repair the trust between the public and the school board, which she said was damaged during this past year with the last school board majority.
“I am definitely committed to transparency and communicating with the rest of the community about what their tax dollars are paying for,” Choin said.
More information about Choin’s campaign can be found at www.erinforsunol.com.
Editor’s note: A previous version of this story incorrectly stated how long Choin has lived in Sunol. Embarcadero Media regrets the error.
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