Meet Charlie Jones, Candidate For Pleasanton School Board

PLEASANTON, CA — Patch reached out to all candidates for the PUSD Board of Trustees with identical questions about their background and their vision for Pleasanton schools. Here are the responses from Charlie Jones, a candidate for Area 4.

Responses have not been altered.

1. What is your personal, educational, and professional background?

I grew up in Pleasanton and attended amazing schools throughout PUSD. My mom walked me every day to Vintage Hills Elementary School. For middle school, I would carpool with my neighbors to Pleasanton Middle School, where the music program helped me grow into a more confident and creative person. I then graduated from Amador Valley High School, where I played in the marching band and did club rugby.

I attended Las Positas College before transferring to Arizona State University and receiving my Bachelor's in History - Secondary Education through the Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College. After graduating, I moved home to Pleasanton and got a job teaching Social Studies at Hayward's Tennyson High School, where I am still teaching seven years later as Department Chair.

In this leadership role, I have worked to boost enrollment in AP courses, implement Ethnic Studies in Hayward Unified, stabilize Hayward Unified's budget, and advocate for our classrooms to become supportive environments for every student. I am also proud to be a active union member, fighting hard to stop school closures, improve parent engagement, and ensure fair working conditions for all of my fellow school employees.

2. How long have you lived in Pleasanton?

I have lived in Pleasanton since 1996 when my dad came here from Idaho to work in the
technology industry. My mom loved the small town feel as well as the school system Pleasanton had so much she even worked at it for a while.

3. What brought you here?

My family moved to Pleasanton when I was in first grade, and I lived here all through High
School and Community College. I returned after I finished my degree at Arizona State because Pleasanton is my home and I love living here. The Bay Area is where I always wanted to teach, and Pleasanton has always been a huge part of what made me who I am today, especially because the schools here inspired me to dedicate my career to teaching.

4. How have you been involved in the community?

I’m a member of the Tri-Valley Democratic Club, supporting voter registration and engagement throughout our region. I am also a supporter of the Amador Friends of Music, regularly attending their events to support the marching band program that I was a part of. Their live auctions are particularly fun, and handmade items they sell are always beautiful. I’m also on the county-level steering committee for the California Teachers Association, where I have helped Pleasanton teachers advocate for our students’ needs and secure funds for professional development.

5. What do you feel are some of the biggest challenges facing PUSD?

Pleasanton has three major problems that we need to address: our budget crisis, our lack of
true community collaboration, and our need to protect and expand the programs that make
PUSD one of the best school districts in the nation.

6. What are your plans for addressing them?

The first issue is that our school district has been deficit spending for five years, which has led to cuts across the board and damaged the relationship between the district, parents, and
employees. I would begin to correct this by bringing together all relevant stakeholders – district experts, parents, educators, support staff, and members of the broader Pleasanton community – to truly assess and understand our current budget. We would then map out where we could better spend our budget more wisely and where cuts could be made furthest from the classroom, and then work to build a 5-year budget plan so we aren’t doing this chaotically at the end of each year. We should also look for state and federal grants to better support programs that we know need better funding.

Second, we need to have true community collaboration with our labor partners, our parents, and the rest of the Pleasanton community. Many of the decisions our district has made have been without real community engagement or even any proper notification for our parents, teachers, and support staff. This has led to multiple years of strike authorizations, each of which were narrowly avoided, leading to our district losing employees and struggling to fill vacancies. I would work to heal the District’s relationship with our employees and further strengthen our policies to require concrete proof of community outreach before the School Board implements anything major.

Lastly, while our schools are among the best in California, we could be doing better when it
comes to expanding the services and programs we offer our students. We haven’t fully
expanded our Dual Language Program or MultiLingual Learner program, meaning that
immigrant and newcomer students aren’t able to fully participate in their school community at the same level as their peers. We are also still seeing our students impacted by the pandemic learning loss, so we need to reject any budget cuts to the mental health and guidance counseling services our students still need. Through stronger ties between the Chamber of Commerce and PUSD, we can expand career-technical education and technology access at all school sites, with an even deeper focus on local economic opportunities. I would work hard to build a coalition of Board Trustees and community members to push back against cuts to our student needs, and to fight to expand the programs that bring families (just like mine) to Pleasanton.

7. What makes you the best candidate?

I am a proud product of the Pleasanton school system and grew up here, meaning that I know firsthand what has worked for students and what needs to be improved. As a teacher of seven years and with a degree in History - Secondary Education, I have unique experience and knowledge of what goes on in the classroom and what teachers require in order to better
support our students. In fact, I am the only candidate in the race endorsed by the Association of Pleasanton Teachers, and I would be the only person on our School Board with experience
teaching during and after the pandemic. I have worked on budget issues and surplus property committees in HUSD over multiple years, successfully balancing budgets and preventing significant program cuts, so I already have experience working on the biggest problem our district faces. Education is my passion, and I’ve dedicated my life to it. I firmly believe that every child has the right to a high-quality education, and I fight every day to make that happen.

8. Outside of politics, what do you enjoy doing?

I’m really into traveling, so every year, I organize a trip through my Social Studies Department, taking students to another part of the country for Spring Break. Last year, I fundraised for trips to Boston and New York City. I also enjoy wine tasting and trying out new restaurants with my partner. And whenever I’m not busy knocking doors for this campaign, I really enjoy unwinding after work by playing video games and immersing myself in their storylines!

9. Any other comments?

I am honored to have support from the Democratic Party, Planned Parenthood Advocates Mar Monte, Congressman Eric Swalwell, former Congressman Jerry McNerney, and Alameda
County Board of Education President Cheryl Cook-Kallio. For more information about me and how to support my campaign for Pleasanton Unified School Board Area 4, please visit
charlieforschoolboard.com.

Community Endorsements:

• Pleasanton Teachers Endorse Charlie Jones and Kelly Mokashi