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BY BRADEN CARTWRIGHT
Daily Post Staff Writer
In the wake of a heated debate over Ethnic Studies, the rift between Palo Alto school employees and board member Rowena Chiu has only grown deeper.
Teachers and principals said at Tuesday’s school board meeting that Chiu will only sit down with them if she can record the meeting and bring an attorney, reflecting “a pattern of avoidance.”
In an interview with the Post on Wednesday, Chiu said she’s been subject to a “smear campaign,” and district employees have made her feel like there’s no path forward.
Special education teacher Ashley Cheechoo said at Tuesday’s meeting that she’s looking for a conversation with Chiu, not a deposition.
Teri Baldwin, president of the teacher’s union, said Chiu’s preconditions are “unworkable.”
Palo Alto High School Principal Brent Kline, representing the union for principals and psychologists, repeated his calls for Chiu’s resignation.
“Under this current board, we have been caught in a cycle of blame, personal agendas and political posturing,” Kline said at Tuesday’s meeting.
Chiu has been in the hot seat since the board voted 3-2 on Jan. 23 to mandate Ethnic Studies for freshman starting in the fall.
After the meeting, Chiu reposted on her X account a post from Asians Against Wokeness that called out Executive Director of Curriculum and Instruction Danae Reynolds for her comments about who could feel unsafe. Reynolds was subject to racist comments underneath the post and hasn’t been at a board meeting since.
Judy Argumedo, principal at Barron Park Elementary School, said Reynolds experienced a “public digital lynching.”
“Her career is now tainted. She was targeted for being a strong, black, educated woman who engaged in a discussion,” Argumedo said on Tuesday.
Chiu invoked her background as a Harvey Weinstein rape survivor and #MeToo advocate in her repost of Asians Against Wokeness.
“In 1998, Weinstein told me, as he attempted to rape me, that he ‘liked Chinese girls, because they’re discreet.’ In 2025, as an elected official, I spoke up about Asian oppression, and I was suppressed yet again,” Chiu said in her repost.
Board members Shounak Dharap and Shana Segal introduced a resolution at the next board meeting on Feb. 11 to re-assign Chiu from committees working directly with school employees.
“When board members take actions that create the potential for harassment of our employees, we risk fostering a hostile workplace environment,” Segal said.
The resolution also called on Chiu to meet with district employees, address their concerns and rebuild trust.
Chiu apologized at the meeting, agreed to meet with employees and accepted her committee re-assignments.
“The resolution seems to be an attempt to silence dissent,” she said at the meeting.
Board members Josh Salcman and Alison Kamhi said they didn’t think the resolution was necessary.
“I wonder, are we engaging in public shaming to some extent?” Salcman said.
Since that meeting, Salcman said he met with 11 principals along with many teachers and other school employees.
Kamhi said she has met with more than 45 employees and learned recent board meetings were more damaging to morale than she imagined.
“I have had principals who worked here for many decades asking me if we were a district that no longer valued every child. I had staff asking if we as a board condone racism. These questions have been heartbreaking,” Kamhi said on Tuesday.
Kamhi and Salcman said they agree with employees on three recommendations for the board: do a bias training, review social media policies and hold a community listening session.
“As board members, we set the tone,” Salcman said.
Chiu didn’t speak on the issue at Tuesday’s board meeting but said Wednesday that she’s publicly apologized multiple times for her repost.
Chiu said her repost was up for less than 48 hours to her 1,500 followers, and she didn’t read the comments underneath — a “grave error” that she said she deeply regrets.
Chiu said she had one meeting with a school psychologist that went “horrifically badly.”
“The person I met with, her opinion is that I have harmed the district so badly there is no recovery, and therefore there’s no constructive thing I could do that would restore trust,” Chiu said Wednesday. “The meeting felt very one-sided. I found it to be incredibly difficult for me to express an opinion or to be heard or seen or understood.”
Chiu said she doesn’t feel comfortable going into another meeting with district employees without a third party.
But she isn’t set on bringing her lawyer. She said she’s been working on finding a neutral, third-party mediator both sides would agree on.
Chiu said she was quiet at Tuesday’s board meeting because she doesn’t feel “psychologically safe.”
“That’s exactly what happens when you condemn somebody as the epitome of evil and that person is regarded as a bigoted racist and canceled for such, and their children are getting death threats. I’m not going to be saying anything at all. I think that’s really obvious,” Chiu said.
Superintendent Don Austin said on Tuesday that Palo Alto is a destination school district, where people come from all over the world to attend.
“It is disappointing right now that it feels like we’re trying to scream that from the mountains, and all we hear is adult stuff and negativity,” Austin said.
“Everybody who’s got anything to do the school district needs to look in the mirror and see what their part of this is, because this isn’t good enough.”
The Ethnic Studies debate and ensuing resolution led some of Chiu’s supporters to start a recall against Dharap on Feb. 17.
Salcman, Kamhi and Segal said they’re against a recall while Chiu declined to comment.
The recall ceased on Feb. 21 because the campaign didn’t provide verifiable addresses for those who signed a petition, the Santa Clara County Registrar of Voters said.
Parent Avery Wang, who was acting as spokesman for the recall campaign, initially said the campaign would refile its paperwork and continue the effort.
But Wang said told the Post on Wednesday that he dropped out of the campaign. So did parent William Watson, who signed on as campaign treasurer.
“It didn’t seem like the right thing to do right now,” Watson told the Post on Wednesday, noting that Dharap is termed out next year.
A few parents defended Chiu at Tuesday’s school board meeting.
“Please stop asking Rowena to resign and wondering why it’s a toxicenvironment,” parent Allyson Rosen said. “The people voted for her, and she’s brilliant and cares. We want Danae Reynolds here too.”
Resident Deborah Goldeen said frustration with the school board has been building among parents for the last 10 years, and the board and administration haven’t responded.
“So they elected an activist to the board. And you guys still aren’t getting it, and it’s very frustrating,” Goldeen said.
Glad to see Rowena is protecting herself. She’s the target of a smear campaign. If the people like Don Austin are upset at the tone in the district, then they should talk to the teachers and administrators who seem to be in charge and aren’t held accountable for their behavior. Rowena got the most votes of anyone running for the board in years. That should tell the old guard something.
“Rowena got the most votes of anyone running for the board in years. That should tell the old guard something.”
Interesting claim. I wondered, so I looked it up. Here are top vote getters in recent years:
Jennifer DiBrienza 2016 – 20,868
Jennifer DiBrienza 2020 – 20,584
Rowena Chiu 2024 – 19.004
Shana Segal 2022 – 18,813
Melissa Baten Caswell 2012 – 18,589
Camille Townsend 2012 – 17,721
Jesse Ladomirak 2020 – 17,720
Alison Kamhi 2024 – 17,498
So not the most votes of recently. High. But in the ballpark of a bunch of other candidates over the past decade or so.
She was top vote getter this time and she had a lot of support.
But 1) let’s work in facts and 2) I’m not sure what that has to do with her recent behavior – she wasn’t happy with an employee who reports to her, so she blasted her on social media? One of our students would have been suspended for sure. What message are we sending them when we say “it’s just a smear campaign”? I think we do better when we say “what she did was extremely damaging and completely inappropriate. And she apologized and will work to rebuild trust. And we’re still glad she’s up there and she has our support.” I really haven’t heard anyone say that. Those who support her seem to be saying “no biggie”. Poor message for our students.
Rowena got the most votes last November of any candidate running for school board and the most in eight years. She got 19,904 votes last November compared to the 14,474 Ken Dauber got in 2018 and the 10,709 he had in 2014. Any objective observer would see that she got a mandate last fall. But you’ve got to marginalize her. And isn’t that the complaint Asian families have had with PAUSD — that they’re being ignored and marginalized?
And now she’s the target of a smear campaign, and has the audacity to fight back. I’m sure you want her to be more discreet.
What are you even saying? The most in 8 years? I just laid it out for you. Not even close to “the most in 8 years.” And why are you comparing her to Ken Dauber? He ran in non-presidential election years. Ms. Chiu ran in one of the biggest election years of our lifetime. The turnout is much higher in those years than the years that Dauber ran. It doesn’t have anything to do with being Asian or being marginalized or ignored. The numbers above are the numbers. She got the 3rd highest number of votes over the past 8 years and is right in line with about 1/2 dozen other candidates who got a lot of support.
Here are the numbers:
Rowena Chiu 19,904 23%
Alison Kamhi 17,498 21%
Josh Salcman 16,420 20%
Nicole Chiu-Wang 15,137 19%
Chris Colohan 11,565 14%
Mazhar Hussain 1,990 2%
Rowena led the field with 2,400 more votes. If you can’t admit you’re trying to marginalize her, that’s your problem.
you said “Rowena got the most votes of anyone running for the board in years. That should tell the old guard something.”
I said “She was top vote getter this time and she had a lot of support, but…”
You said, “Rowena got the most votes last November of any candidate running for school board and the most in eight years.”
I said, “The most in 8 years? I just laid it out for you. Not even close to “the most in 8 years.” And why are you comparing her to Ken Dauber? He ran in non-presidential election years.
You have now claimed I am trying to marginalize her because I’m pointing out facts you don’t seem to like?
We started that she was top vote getter THIS TIME. We both said that. But you keep saying she was top vote getter in “in 8 years”. Wholly untrue. And not remarkably higher than many others during those 8 years.
Trustee Chiu continues in her predictable pattern of lashing out while calling herself the victim. She’s unwilling to speak with community or staff members in a way that is normal and expected of board members, but she can speak to a reporter from a friendly news outlet that doesn’t challenge her own unsupported assertions, such as “Chiu said her repost was up for less than 48 hours to her 1,500 followers” when, in fact, her post was up for closer to a week, and she only removed it after both PAEA and Board President Segal asked her to take it down. She exaggerates the words of others, such as saying others are calling her the “epitome of evil” when, in fact, she’s the only one saying that. And Trustee Chiu allows others to exaggerate her own biography on her behalf, such as when a caller into the March 11 board meeting said that Trustee Chiu was a world leader on mental health, when there is zero evidence to support that. For that matter, there is zero evidence to support her ballot designation of Lawyer either here in the US or in the UK.
Trustee Chiu continues to promote a false narrative about the January 23 school board meeting regarding a school district administrator’s remarks. The Daily Post’s article of March 14 titled “Swing Vote Endorses Class,” debunks her false narrative when it quotes the words Trustee Chiu said directly before the administrator’s remarks: “I think that fear is based on an ideological framework around oppressor-oppressed that will make some students in this school district feel unsafe.” The administrator responded to those exact remarks, which are about students’ feelings of safety in the classroom, and NOT Trustee Chiu’s feelings in the board room. Trustee Chiu’s pattern is to make herself the hero of her own story, facts be damned. She’s not serving anyone besides herself right now – her supporters are getting nothing productive from her. It’s up to all of us to stop living inside her delusional world and to get things done here in the real world.
There is no path forward for Rowena on our school board! She needs to pack up her circus and stop further hard. I, and so many of my Asian friends and fellow parents, are mortified by her egregious behavior. She has burned too many bridges with our teachers, students, administrators, other board members and our general community. She has proven time and time again that not only is she unprofessional and a bully, she is also a liar who lacks empathy and has all the traits of a narcissist. She is literally a text book example of how you do NOT show remorse and NOT repair the damage you have done. It’s been crazy-making following her attempts to play the victim and her cult-following blindly believing and loudly supporting her. Don’t they realize that they are supporting a racist bully? Don’t they realize that she and her supporters give all Asians (and Jews?) in our community a bad rep? Many Jews in our community appear to be so hell bend on sabotaging ethnic studies that they are willing to stand behind the most dangerous and cringe-worthy school board member we have EVER had in this town!? Just please step down and please tell your cult members to take down the red lawn signs (which btw are against the law and signal to the rest of us where the racists live). It’s time for the board and our district to get back to work and for the crazy to stop.
This is a school board run by fear: Shana is terrified of being thrown under the bus like she was last year so she throws Rowena under the bus to protect herself. Josh is new to town but got the memo so he does the same. Shounak is a ideologue peddling identity politics in the classroom and fostering mediocrity due to his own personal academic failings. I wonder if it’s ultimately Don Austin who created this toxic board culture?
Yes, the root of much of this goes back DA. This is what happens when the superintendent runs the board and not vice-versa. Don, *YOU* engineered this mess via poor handling of the board agenda (including appropriate documentation) ahead of the Ethnic Studies vote. You are *NOT* free of blame here. I remember watching you sitting there watching the fireworks with vague interest. And as a result full reputation of the district is suffering. (If you can’t tell, I’m no DA fan.)
If Rowena is looking for an attorney with experience taking on school districts, superintendents, school board members, school administrators, and teachers, I would be honored to represent her at all meetings for free.
Yes suing our district because of Rowena’s fragility is definitely a great idea. Maybe she could just attempt to DO THE JOB the people elected her to do and stop talking about herself and how hard it’s been for her. She ran for the job. She supposedly wanted the job. She hasn’t really done it yet. If it’s too much, step aside and let someone up to the task do it.
Jane “Doh”. That’s a very caring attitude you have there. If you think you can do better, put yourself on the ballot!