The Palo Alto Unified School District stands at a critical crossroads, which is why we proudly endorse Avery Wang and John Craig for the Palo Alto school board. The district desperately needs structural and cultural reform, and both Wang and Craig bring the independent vision, fiscal realism and commitment to academic excellence required to steer the district back on track.
We cannot endorse the third candidate in the race, Linda Henigin, because she represents a vote for the status quo.
Why Henigin Falls Short
Henigin, an instructional aide, seems to be on the side of policies that keep the district anchored to past missteps.
For instance, she leans toward de-laning — an educational practice of eliminating tracked or grouped classes (such as separating students by academic skill levels in subjects like math) in an attempt to place all students of varying abilities into the same heterogeneous classrooms.
Critics note this approach often dumbs down instruction and deprives high-achieving students of rigorous academic challenges.
When questioned about it, she wouldn’t take a “yes” or “no” position on de-laning, but offered another approach that would group students together that sounded a lot like de-laning to us.
Furthermore, Henigin supports raising teacher compensation despite an existing labor contract that risks plunging the district deeper into a multi-million-dollar budget deficit. At a time when the district has faced severe budget shortfalls — lately highlighted by wasteful expenditures like $18,000 luxury sushi machines while grappling with core budget holes — PAUSD needs leaders who prioritize fiscal discipline over empty promises.
Ending the Don Austin Era
Palo Alto schools must make a clean break from the toxic legacy of former Superintendent Don Austin, who infamously ruled through intimidation and manipulation. The district’s administrative bureaucracy spiraled so far out of control that it even launched a covert investigation targeting school board member Rowena Chiu. We suspect the point of this was an ugly attempt to dig up dirt and force her resignation. (They didn’t find any dirt, however.)
Electing Avery Wang and John Craig, alongside Chiu, will forge a principled three-member reform majority on the board. This new majority can finally sweep out Austin’s remaining collaborators and restore accountability, openness and integrity to 25 Churchill.
Merit and Advanced Math
We strongly favor Wang and Craig for their unwavering emphasis on merit and the rebuilding of an educational meritocracy.
Avery Wang, in particular, has been a tireless champion for advanced math opportunities. His dedication to ensuring students can excel and advance in mathematics goes beyond mere rhetoric — he even took legal action against the district to challenge policies that unfairly held back high achieving students.
John Craig joins him with a sharp focus on restoring academic rigor, financial transparency and common-sense governance.
To turn the page on administrative overreach and refocus our schools on student achievement, vote for Avery Wang and John Craig for Palo Alto school board.
These two are the obvious choices unless you think the present board is doing a good job. De-laning is similar to busing in that it makes the teachers’ jobs harder. You actually have to come up with two or more curriculums within the same class and teach them at the same time. With elementary school busing you would start an activity and once you got one half the class settled down and on task the other half would be done.
And not so happens))))
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Good to see average citizens stand up and run for elected office when they’ve seen and had enough abuse and status quo from public servants. Too bad it took a costly Don Austin administration to do it. The way Don and his team have treated employees and their tax paying constituents was/is completely unacceptable! I personally believe John and Avery are willing to turn every rock within PAUSD transparently and make difficult changes that will be necessary to make a lasting difference in turning PAUSD around quickly. PAUSD still has some cancerous liabilities within the administration management, those people will need to be addressed. Jason will need to listen to the new board member’s concerns as John and Avery, just like Rowena, are the change that Palo Alto taxpayers demand. The first order of business should be demanding resignations from any and all of Don’s top leftovers, including the CBO Charen and the new assistant superintendent Herb, who are both mainly responsible for the union negotiation contracts that took us from +100 million to -33 million in a blink of an eye. Last but definitely not least, the community and the BOE needs resignations from all other walking liabilities within PAUSD upper management positions. Don’s leftovers have continued his toxic legacy by actually promoting several of those rotten apples even after a lawsuit and ongoing, alleged complaints of discrimination, harassment, and retaliation. Roll up your sleeves Mr. Wang and Mr. Craig, all of us in the community have lots of work to do and I personally cannot wait until you are elected! 🙂
We need committed community members who are not afraid to speak out and take action when the administration is harming students and the district. We don’t need anyone like Linda, who was actively supporting Don Austin and has shown that she either is unaware of board policies or feels that they don’t apply to her
Vote for John and Avery
There’s all this handwringing about student suicides at Paly High but the district only talks about things like guards at the railroad tracks and counseling for students. There could be a number of reasons for the suicides but I would guess that one of them is that the students just feel alienated from Paly. So why would a counselor or a psychotherapist employed by Paly be able to help them like the experience better? I would be willing to pay more taxes to enabled these students to attend a school that better met their needs so that they could get away from Paly altogether. Take the money taxpayers pay PAUSD and add more. It would also liberate kids from brain-dead school board policy.
I trust Avery Wang and John Craig to act in the public’s
interest. A school board is an oversight body and needs independent thinkers who can’t be swayed by special interest groups.
I recently learned from Wang and Craig that PAUSD has so far spent $24 million in mental health and suicide prevention. Money is not an issue but where did all the money go? They would like a thorough audit and plan for better strategies. I also learned a majority of the students that we lost in the past few years are trans or LGBTQ kids but the school did not do enough to help them. The last kid left a long open letter detailed what happened. Wang and Craig do not have political intensions (no endorsement from political parties), they care deeply about the district and the community.