Patterson Irrigator

Terms for four Patterson Unified School District trustees will end this year, and four incumbents and three challengers have thrown their hats into the ring. 

School board president Bruce Kelly and board members Gilbert Lujan, Barbara Hartsell and Bobby Yamamoto have indicated they will run again. The challengers are Cerise Cameron-Grice, Violet Wells and Sonja Gunderson. 

Michele Bays, Susan Scheuber and Ruben Piña round out the seven-member board.

Full stories on the candidates appeared in the July 18, July 21, Aug. 15 and Aug. 25 editions of the Irrigator. A brief recap of information for each candidate follows:  
  
Bruce Kelly, incumbent
Board president, has been on the board for 13 years. His two daughters graduated from Patterson High School. Kelly has been a computer scientist at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory for the past 34 years. 

Kelly wants to continue to work on reducing the achievement gap — or the difference in federal test scores between members of various subgroups, such as race or economic status.

District staff has been asked by the board to give monthly reports on narrowing the achievement gap.
  
Kelly also wants to continue to work on the “wellness policy” implemented by the district last year to follow state guidelines and combat childhood obesity. Gone are the vending machines and sodas and high-fat food on local campuses. They have been replaced with healthy offering such as wheat bread, fruit and salads.

Gilbert Lujan, incumbent
Lujan, who has been on the board for six years, has a child at Creekside Middle School. He works as a hydroelectric utility engineer for the state Department of Water Resources.

Lujan said he is committed to working with the board and administrators to improve learning environments and help students in their academic performance.

Lujan wants to increase academic performance for students in the district, over the next four years. 

He also wants to see the new Walnut Grove Middle School completed as well as modernization, renovation and upgrades on local campuses. He wants to see new facilities for a growing Patterson population.

Barbara Hartsell, incumbent
Hartsell is completing her first term on the board.

She is a retired teacher and worked for 33 years in the Bay Area. She has three grandchildren in the school district. 

Hartsell said raising test scores and closing the achievement gap are a foremost concern in the district and throughout the state. While she was a teacher, she helped her district align its curriculum to meet state and federal standards.

As a growing district that has many families coming from the Bay Area, Patterson Unified is becoming more culturally diverse and needs to meet the needs of all students, Hartsell said. 

She said the district has made progress on providing help to children working below grade level and feels the effort needs to continue. She also wants to improve the Gifted And Talented Education program.

Hartsell said it is important to recruit and train teachers who will stay in the district and teach the children.

She also hopes, in the near future, to get Patterson off the year-round school system.

Bobby Yamamoto, incumbent
Yamamoto has been on the board almost two years.

He is a Westley farmer and Patterson High School graduate with two children who are PHS seniors.

Yamamoto wants to ensure that the district has qualified staff and administrators on school campuses.

Safety on local campuses, communication with students, communication with administrators and school modernization are tops on his priority list.

He would like to see a trusted “go-to person” on school sites who students could trust to talk to about concerns and happenings at the school without fear of repercussions from administrators.

He also wants better communication between school board trustees and school administrators.

Yamamoto said some recent renovations and campus modernization projects were long overdue, such as the revamped gym, shower/locker rooms and stadium at Patterson High School. He aims to prevent facilities from becoming outdated.

Cerise Cameron-Grice, challenger
Grice moved to Patterson three years ago from Hayward. She has two children at Apricot Valley Elementary School.

She works at Alameda County Child Protective Services as a child welfare analyst and has had 20 years experience in child welfare, social work, child development and legal advocacy.

She said she understands issues facing working parents and advocates for them to be included in school efforts and events as they manage their children’s busy schedules on limited time.

Grice is the former chairwoman of the Apricot Valley School Site Council. She has been a PTA member for the past two years and attends committee meetings throughout the district.

As a parent, Grice said she has the responsibility to work with schools, the district and the school board.  
She supports enrichment programs and was part of the committee that worked on the recent music and physical education/fitness grants.

She would like to see more clubs, such as drama, Spanish, chess, science, art and journalism clubs at local schools.

Grice also believes after-school programs should be open to all children. 

Violet Wells, challenger
Wells is a community developer for the West Side Community Alliance.

She has three children and one grandchild — one of her children is still school age and attends PUSD schools.

Wells gives her time to school fundraisers, and she is one of the administrators for the Patterson Lakers traveling basketball team. 

She is a liaison between teachers, students and parents in her work as a community developer. She serves on the Safe Haven Committee at Patterson High, a group that formed for the well-being and safety of students on campus.

She meets many families through the West Side Community Alliance, and people often tell her about their concerns, she said. 

Wells is visible in the community and attends numerous community meetings, including City Council, the city’s gang task force and Stanislaus Elder Abuse Prevention Alliance, also known as SEAPA.

She helps in the community volunteering her time with various organizations. Wells has also worked on a Community Development Block Grant that provides scholarships for kids for sports.

She feels she has a voice to represent the parents and youth on the board, as she is already involved with them through her career.

Wells said Patterson is taking a new direction with a growing population, and she wants to bring her experience with local families to the school board.

Sonja Gunderson, challenger
Gunderson is a clerk at Kaiser Permanente in Livermore pharmacy call center. She and her husband have a 23-month-old son.

Gunderson has worked as a preschool teacher for the past 10 years and was a co-leader for a Girl Scout Troop. She has also been a Court Appointed Special Advocate, also known as CASA member, for children who have been abused and neglected in Alameda County.

She said she enjoys working with children and wants to make a difference in Patterson, bringing a fresh perspective to some of the issues that schools might face.

Gunderson wants to be involved in Patterson where she has lived for four years.

She said she is the average person with no hidden agenda who wants the best for all children and their education.

To reach Maddy Houk at the Irrigator, call 892-6187 or e-mail her at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

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