School Boards Matter: 2026 Candidate Guide

Elizabeth Shulok

What do you see as the greatest challenges facing public school districts over the next several years? 

Declining enrollment is one of the most pressing challenges districts face, as families have fewer children and affordability pushes many out of the region entirely. Districts need to actively attract and retain families. That means promoting the programs that make a district distinctive, like EUSD’s specialty school Quantum Academy, their dual language immersion programs, and extensive free after-school programs and school break camps. And it means identifying where students are leaving, like EUSD’s middle school attrition, and expanding options that meet more families' needs.

Technology is the second major challenge. Devices have real benefits: differentiated instruction, accessibility for students with disabilities, and access for students without technology at home. But research increasingly shows heavy, unstructured screen use is linked to reduced test scores, lower reading retention, and fragmented attention. EUSD has already begun reducing screen use for our youngest students, and I believe we need to continue that work thoughtfully across every grade level, making sure technology use is intentional, purposeful, and tied to measurable academic outcomes rather than being the default mode of instruction.

How should school boards respond to increasing political polarization, censorship efforts, attacks on policies/programs aimed at supporting marginalized students, and declining trust in public education?

School boards have a duty to serve every single child in the district, ensuring they have a safe environment to learn, grow, and succeed.

What does that mean in practice? First, policy decisions should be based on evidence and student outcomes, not political pressure. When a program or practice is challenged, the board's job is to ask whether it serves students well. 

Second, I believe policies that support marginalized students are essential to making sure all kids in the community are actually being served. When we eliminate bullying and ensure every single student feels safe and valued for who they are, attendance goes up, grades improve, and our entire district thrives.

Third, censorship efforts should go through a transparent, evidence-based, community-input process, whether it is a challenge to a library book or concerns about curriculum. Censorship should not be reactive to the loudest voices in the room.

Finally, rebuilding trust means real transparency: showing their work, explaining their reasoning, and treating disagreement from parents as something to engage with seriously, not dismiss. Trust returns when people see a board making careful decisions in the open, not when they simply claim they are acting in the public's best interests.

How would you work to ensure that all students, including students from historically marginalized communities, feel safe, supported, respected, and able to fully participate in school? What role should school boards play in creating inclusive school cultures?

Board members should ensure that there are policies in place setting the expectation that every student should feel safe, supported and respected in our schools. And the board should hold the district accountable for living up to that expectation.

In practice, that means listening directly to students and families from historically marginalized communities about their actual experiences, rather than assuming the board already knows what's needed. As a board member I would sit in on site-level and district-level committees to hear from families directly.

It means supporting staff training and resources so educators can recognize and respond to the different needs students bring into the classroom. 

And it means using data, such as attendance, the California Healthy Kids Survey results, and discipline patterns, broken down by student group, not just district-wide averages, so we can see whether some students are being underserved even when overall numbers look okay.

Inclusive culture doesn’t come from a single policy. It requires consistent practice and real accountability. I believe the board's job is to keep that question in front of the district, back it with the resources needed to act on it, and measure whether progress is being made.

Educator burnout, staffing shortages, and retention challenges continue to affect schools across California. What do you believe districts should do to better support and retain teachers, counselors, classified staff, and other school employees?

The district may not always have the funds to provide employees with the raises they deserve, but I’ve been to enough board meetings in my district to see that the board’s attitude towards the employee associations has a huge impact on morale. 

I think supporting and retaining school employees starts in the boardroom. Respect for teachers and classified staff and making decisions transparently goes a long way. It creates trust when it comes to negotiations. 

As a parent, I value everyone who works at the school sites. As a board member, I would do the same. I would meet with the labor unions to listen to the concerns of the employees directly. I would talk with staff on site visits and learn what the retention challenges are. 

I would protect teacher planning time in order to protect their personal time. I would prioritize mental health support for students to minimize behavioral challenges in the classroom. And I would maintain open communication with district employees to ensure I’m staying aware of the issues they face.

Student achievement data often reflects persistent disparities based on race, income, disability, language access, housing instability, and other factors. What strategies or priorities would you support to improve student outcomes while also addressing underlying inequities?

Our district has received community schools grants for our schools with a high proportion of low-income families and English learners to help exactly with these inequities. Each of these schools has a committee to get input from their stakeholders and decide how to best use the funding, as well as a community schools coordinator to implement their plan. I would make sure the district is utilizing these resources and committees as intended and is tracking measurable outcomes to see if their efforts are on target. 

I would prioritize knowledge-sharing between community schools coordinators at these school sites with each other and with leaders at schools who did not qualify for the grants. 

I would also prioritize early intervention for students at risk of falling behind, including how to engage the wider community to help on a volunteer basis where possible.

Schools are increasingly navigating questions related to technology, artificial intelligence, social media, student privacy, and digital safety. What principles should guide district decisions around technology use while ensuring students are both prepared for the future and protected from harm?

I believe technology decisions should be guided by one core question: does this serve student learning and wellbeing, or does it just seem inevitable because everyone else is doing it?

In practice, that means a few principles. First, technology use should be intentional and creative, not passive or a default mode of instruction. Second, protections should scale with age: our youngest learners need stronger safeguards and limited device use, while older students need more guided independence paired with real digital literacy. Third, student data privacy needs clear, enforceable standards for any tool or platform the district adopts. Parents deserve to know what's being collected and how it's used.

On AI specifically, I don't think banning it is realistic or wise. Students still need to build foundational skills without relying on AI, but older students also need to understand how AI works so they're prepared for the 21st century workforce. AI literacy, like basic digital literacy, is becoming an essential skill across industries. 

Every policy should be revisited as research and tools evolve, with input from parents, educators, and, where appropriate, students themselves.

How should school districts ensure that all students, regardless of background, identity, ability, or zip code, have equitable access to high-quality academic programs, mental health supports, extracurricular opportunities, and pathways to college and careers?

Equity starts with knowing where the gaps actually are. That means looking at data that is broken down by school site, student group, and program. District-wide averages can hide disparities between schools and student groups.

Some students start school with different levels of need, so equal access isn't the same as equal outcomes. A student at one school site may require more academic and mental health support than a peer at another school site to have a shot at the same opportunities. Resources should follow need, not just be spread evenly.

That applies across the board: academic programs like our specialty schools should be genuinely accessible regardless of a family's ability to navigate the application process or provide transportation; mental health staffing should reflect the actual needs at each site; extracurriculars shouldn't depend on which side of the district a student lives on.

I'd also want the district to track whether these opportunities are actually reaching underserved students, not just whether the programs exist. Equity requires an ongoing commitment, it’s not a one time policy decision.

School board members must balance their duty to act in the best interest of students and the families they represent with the practical realities of overseeing a district's operations and finances. How do you plan to communicate with your constituents to understand their needs and priorities? What steps will you take to follow through and verify that what the district reports is actually being implemented as promised?

Our district has multiple committees at the district and site level and I would try to attend as many as I can to hear from families directly about their needs and priorities. Our district also does an annual survey to get input from stakeholders across the district and I would help ensure families are aware of how to access these surveys. I would want to look at the raw survey data as well as the district’s summary of findings to make sure I have a sense for what stakeholders are actually saying. 

To assess whether the district is following through, I would request updates from district staff on programs they have implemented, including any data collected to verify our focus is moving the needle in the right direction. I would visit school sites to verify programs for myself and try to talk to as many school site employees as practical to see if their daily experience aligns with what I hear in the boardroom.

For more about Elizabeth, visit: https://shulok.org/.