BY BRADEN CARTWRIGHT
Daily Post Staff Writer
A Palo Alto school board candidate will keep her description on the ballot as “math teacher” after a parent’s challenge missed the deadline.
“This was a Hail Mary,” parent Virgina Noh said at a court hearing Tuesday.
Judge Helen Williams said Noh has to show that candidate Linda Henigin’s description could be changed without affecting the election. But Santa Clara County Registrar of Voters Matt Moreles said the ballot and voter information guide were already sent to vendors to print on Friday.
“Any change to elections materials at this point will have a cascading effect on the preparation of the official election materials and will imperil (my) ability to comply with statutory requirements,” Moreles said in a court filing on Monday.
Noh filed her lawsuit on Aug. 25, alleging that Henigin lied on the ballot about her credentials as a math teacher.
“She shouldn’t be calling herself that. Math is important in this community … She knows that uninformed people are going to see ‘math teacher’ next to her name, and they’re going to click the box,” Noh said in an interview yesterday.
Henigin hasn’t returned a request for comment since last week, nor has she responded in court. She described herself on the ballot as “math teacher/ mother.”
Henigin works as a classroom aide at Duveneck Elementary School. She has a “multiple subject” credential that allows her to teach a combination of subjects to the same classroom up to eighth grade. That includes elementary school classrooms and middle school core classes.
Teachers need a “single subject” credential to teach standalone subjects like math, according to the Commission on Teacher Credentialing.
Noh said she is thinking about other remedies the court can provide, besides changing the ballot, before another hearing on Sept. 15.
Noh and Henigin are on opposite sides of a debate in Palo Alto about whether students should be grouped together or allowed to advance in math in smaller groups within the school. Delaning is the educational practice of merging multiple academic tracks — such as remedial, regular, and honors classes—into a single, unified classroom. Critics say that delaning slows down high achievers.
Proponents of laning say it’s a way of responding to allegations of systemic bias. Historically, lower academic “lanes” have been filled with minority and low-income students, inadvertently locking them out of advanced pathways early in their schooling.
Henigin said general education classrooms should be the “default placement” for all students at a May 2025 meeting.
“Our schools, as they currently operate, are launching some of our kids into the highest heights possible in our country,” she said. “Please remember that when parents come to you complaining that our district lacks rigor or that we are ruining their children’s chance to excel. The students who are not yet achieving at their potential are the ones who aren’t yet being well served here.”
Noh managed board member Rowena Chiu’s 2024 campaign. Chiu has advocated for bringing back Multivariable Calculus, a high-level math class that was removed from the high school course catalog in March 2023.
Noh also supports Henigin’s opponent Avery Wang, an engineer and co-founder of Shazam who sued the district in June 2020 for allegedly holding his son back in math.
The district agreed to move Wang’s son into a more advanced class and pay him $5,000 to drop his case.
“While he’s not a math teacher, that is his specialty.” Noh said. “And I think it’s important that you be hon-est, especially in a race for school board, that you’re not lying about your educational qualifications.”
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