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Ken Dauber for Palo Alto School Board

While the Presidential race and California ballot measures are consuming most of the oxygen this election season, there are also important local races. One of the most critical is for the Board of the Palo Alto Unified School District, which has drifted in recent years and ceded too much authority to the Superintendent and his staff. Four candidates are running for three seats. I'm most enthusiastic about Ken Dauber and I urge you to support him too. You can learn more about Ken at Ken Dauber for School Board. Ken is a data-centric software engineer at Google, who also has deep experience with education policy and advocacy. He's been a consultant about education data and achievement for the Education Trust, Gates Foundation and U.S. Department of Education. His five kids have attended many local schools, including Barron Park, Nixon, JLS, Terman and Gunn. And for the past two years he's led successful local parent advocacy about student emotional health and achievement. Ken wants our schools to enable all students to thrive academically, social and emotionally. His priorities -- student achievement and health, transparent and accountable governance and data-driven innovation and planning -- make sense to me. Over the past few weeks Ken has mounted one of the most energetic local campaigns I've ever seen. He's earned key endorsements from 7 current City Council members, many other local officials and dozens of community leaders. The Palo Alto Weekly has endorsed Ken. So has Palo Alto High School's student newspaper, the Campanile: "We feel most compelled to support non-incumbent Ken Dauber . . . . Dauber has helped shape homework policy, drive discussions on student well-being and Project Safety Net and more." Last year, my now-graduated daughter Meghan was the Opinion Editor of the Campanile, so I know first-hand how seriously the students take their endorsement responsibility. Thanks for considering this special request to vote for for a special candidate: Ken Dauber.