School Board Election Limited to One Contest
Where you live in Castro Valley will impact whether you will vote for the Castro Valley Unified School District (CVUSD) Board of Trustees on November 5.
While three of the seats are up for re-election, only Trustee Area 5 incumbent and Board President Michael Kusiak faces a challenger in John Chung. Incumbents Dolly Adams (Area 1) and Lavender Lee Whitaker (Area 2) are running unopposed. Because they have no challengers, the Alameda County Registrar of Voters will not include Adams or Lee Whitaker on the ballot this fall.
This is the first year only a fraction of voters in Castro Valley will get to vote for a school board candidate. Previously, all Castro Valley voters were able to vote for any candidate. But last summer, the Alameda County Committee on School District Organization approved a resolution that separates Castro Valley into five districts where each Trustee will reside and seek the votes of their neighbors.
Incumbents Gary Howard and Sara Raymond, who were both elected at-large before the district switched to elections by area, will face re-election in 2026 rather than this year.
Kusiak, first elected in 2020, has children attending Castro Valley schools and, beyond his role on the board, has been a University of California administrator for 23 years. He points out that the community is more diverse than many people outside of Castro Valley realize, and that the schools are even more diverse than the community.
“We’re a majority-minority district, with many immigrants,” he said. “At Castro Valley Elementary School in particular, the whole world is in attendance.”
He sees transportation and giving all students what they need as important issues facing the district. He also would like to look at how the placement of the two middle schools affects both outcomes and transportation costs.
John Chung, his challenger, is himself the child of immigrants, from South Korea. He moved to Castro Valley to enroll his own children in good public schools after previously home-schooling them.
Chung owns a home-inspection business on the Peninsula but is also a licensed contractor and a Registered Associate in mental health, counseling children and families.
“I’m not political,” he said, “just trying to help young people.”
It’s the first time he’s run for office, though he gained board experience in a homeowners’ association in San Lorenzo.
Chung said he has so far had no major disagreements with the current board but would like to look closely at mental health needs of students and their families as we continue to recover from the pandemic.
“Do we need more mental health services for them, as the need has grown since the pandemic?” he asked.
He also wants to make sure students’ safety and security needs are still being met, several years after the district ended its relationship with the Alameda County Sheriff’s Office.
Lee Whitaker has served on the board since 2016. She works outside the district in environmental efforts, first for utilities and government and now for a biotech company. She first ran for the board when her husband, Castro Valley social studies teacher Nicholas “Dubb” Whitaker, passed away. She said she wanted to continue his work, ensuring fair treatment for all students and making sure everybody was heard.
“He saw the best in everybody,” she said.
Adams currently serves as CVUSD Board Vice President. She says she wants to continue work on fairness and equity for all students but wants full discussions with teachers of equity grading proposals before any move to adopt them. She also sees transportation, upgrading the athletic fields at Canyon Middle Schools, and ethnic studies as key areas for the board to work on during her next term.
More information about the incumbents can be found on the district’s website at www.cv.k12.ca.us.
Chung says he does plan to set up a campaign website.