Palos Verdes Peninsula Unified School District (PVPUSD) Candidates Evaluation

PVP Watch has scrutinized the four candidates running for two seats on the Palos Verdes Peninsula Unified School District (PVPUSD) board of education.

We drafted a questionnaire with pertinent questions; interviewed each one; attended the two candidate forums; and listened to comments from citizens.

Those elected will influence how students in our district are educated and what they learn. This is important not only to the students and their families, but for a variety of reasons, including what our future society will look like to our home values.

PVP Watch endorses Jeremy Vanderhal and Alexandria Blumer to best lead the PVPUSD into the future.

Ami Gandhi

Ami Gandhi has been a school board member since May 17, 2021.  Her website is https://www.gandhi4pv.com/.  There were two forums for the four PVPUSD candidates to meet the public.  All appeared at the September 12th forum at the Palos Verdes Library.  One week later at the same venue Gandhi and Eric Alegria did not attend the second forum, disappointing the many folks who came expecting to meet and question all candidates.  Gandhi’s close ties to a political party, and its financial assistance to her in a non-partisan race concerns PVP Watch. 

The most recent PV Democrats newsletter announced that Gandhi and Alegria are being given financial donations.  Local democratic politicians Al Muratsuchi and Ben Allen sponsored a fund raiser for Gandhi and Alegria and the invitation distribution was paid for by Ben Allen for Senate 2022.  PVP Watch finds it problematic that Gandhi has been endorsed by the Palos Verdes Faculty Association (PVFA) since the school board is meant to represent the taxpayers when it negotiates with the PVFA.  We believe this is a conflict of interest.  The culture of the school board needs to change before community trust will return and this will happen when new members of the board are elected.

Eric Alegria

Eric Alegria has closely aligned himself with Gandhi.  His campaign literature frequently features himself with Gandhi, the PVFA endorses him, he is receiving the same financial support from the democratic party, he did not appear at the second candidate forum, etc.  Besides this Alegria has accepted a monetary donation from South Bay United Teachers, a group that PVFA belongs to.  Once again this appears to be a conflict.  PVP Watch believes that the culture of the board will not change if he is elected.  His website is ericalegria.org.

Jeremy Vanderhal 

Jeremy Vanderhal is a United States Air Force veteran

and, amongst other jobs, he flew jet aircraft while in the military.  He has lived in our community for eight years and has a daughter in the PVPUSD.  His website is vanderhal4pv.net.  He is a frequent attendee at school board meetings and ran for the board two years ago.  Vanderhall has spoken on school district issues many times and has expressed his views to the board orally and in writing on numerous occasions.  Vanderhal disagrees with the board on some of its past fiscal priorities, spending money on items not as necessary as repairing the district’s numerous infrastructure needs.  He has read the entire document proposing the school bond and although he does not like the idea of increasing his constituents’ taxes, he sees no other timely way to address the district’s decaying infrastructure.  He believes the root cause of the district’s lack of necessary funding is the Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF) that the state uses to fund school districts.  His research shows that the state is shorting the district as much as $25,000,000 annually in operational funding.  One of his goals will be to try and change this.  He is endorsed by the Republican party, but returned a donation from them as he does not want to be tainted with having a financial obligation to any organization.  Vanderhal supports charter schools or any type of free market competition in all industries, including education.  Only through competition will schools continue to improve and successfully compete for students.  Once elected he will strive to make the PVPUSD a district where students will thrive.   The district has an annual budget of approximately $150,000,000.  To give this perspective the combined budgets for the four cities in the district are about $74,000,000.  Besides this, there is a possibility that a $296,000,000 bond will pass and need to be managed by the board.  No board member has a fiscal background.  Vanderhal, while an officer in the military, dealt with budgets of hundreds of millions of dollars.  Vanderhal is transparent on how he thinks about all pertinent issues by sending e-mail newsletters to Peninsula residents.  None of the current board members, except Julie Hamill, and none of the other candidates do this.  For these reasons, PVP Watch believes Vanderhal will bring a vision and discipline to the board.

Alexandria Blumer

Alexandria Blumer is a former special education teacher in the PVPUSD with good insights into how the school district functions…what it does well and where it needs improvements.  She has lived in the school district for 14 years and has two children in the school district.  Her website is blumer4pv.com.  Her goal is to restore academic excellence to the district, which will draw families to the community, thus enhancing enrollment and funding based on average daily attendance.  She will make fiscal responsibility a priority and insist the spending of tax dollars are discussed in open board sessions.  This includes negotiations with the teachers’ union.  Transparency, with few exceptions, is healthy for all stakeholders in the district.  When money is spent, she will prioritize needs such as repairs and maintenance of facilities, not wants.  As a parent with children in the district and being a former special education teacher she is a strong supporter of parental rights.  She believes parents must be informed of all their children’s school activities, including academics, athletics, clubs, field trips, etc. until they graduate.  When asked what options the school district has if the bond fails Blumer is the only candidate who suggested the district explore applying for funds from the Leroy F. Greene School Facilities Act of 1998.  Amongst items state funds can be spent for under this act are the modernization of school structures at least 25 years old and portable classrooms at least 20 years old.     

PVP Watch urges our readers to forward this newsletter to residents in the PVPUSD and to vote for Vanderhal and Blumer.

Proposition recommendations will be coming shortly.

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