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C$T
Outstanding Candidate for Tam Union High School District Board – Amos Klausner
If you’ve been following the election for the Tamalpais Union High School District Board of Trustees, then you know that five candidates are competing for two seats on the board. Of those, only one stands out from the pack as someone who is willing to press administrators to reconsider policies and processes that haven’t been shown to help students succeed in the classroom.
Amos Klausner, a longtime Marin resident and parent of a student at Archie Williams High School, is that person.
Klausner is applying for the job with a strong resume, having worked on the Local Control and Accountability Plan (LCAP) and bond oversight committees. He has also served as a school board trustee in the Lagunitas School District. He currently sits on the Marin County Board of Education’s Committee for School District Organization – an important committee that approves territory transfers between school districts.
Klausner also supports and understands the important role teachers play in educating our kids. His wife has been a teacher in Marin’s public schools for 27 years so I’m sure he hears an earful from the teacher’s perspective.
In his candidate statements and the weekly emails he’s been sending out (if you haven’t seen them yet, check your spam folder), Klausner makes his position on a variety of important topics clear. In my experience, that alone sets him apart from most other candidates for office.
He is the only candidate of the five running for Tam Union’s board who says he voted against Measure A– the March 2024 Tam Union bond measure that voters rejected.(It asked for $1.04 billion in new taxes to fund $517 million in bond issuance). Amos called it overpriced and criticized the way the District pitched it to the community and overspent on political consultants and taxpayer-funded informational mailers.
He seems laser focused on fiscal accountability and has called out administrators about recent instances of District spending that he viewed as questionable. Amos believes that every proposed contract or consultant should be carefully reviewed with the goal of saving money and investing in the things that are proven to work best to drive student achievement.
Klausner is concerned about the District’s ongoing achievement (aka “opportunity”) gap facing students of color. He is calling for early intervention, encouraging the District to find solutions in collaboration with feeder schools because he recognizes that by the time these kids are already in high school, closing the gap becomes much harder.
Building on Klausner’s attention to District spending, I like his commonsense approach to student success. He encourages every family to start by setting high expectations for their child. He notes the responsibility and importance of parental involvement. He recognizes that great teachers can make a big difference and that increased academic support in the classroom by way of resource specialists is a better investment than overpriced consultants.
In his last email, Klausner’s commitment to transparency was on display when he shared the District’s most recent state test scores (which continue to fall) with voters.
Of all the candidates, Klausner alone is endorsed by CO$T, the Coalition of Sensible Taxpayers, which recommends voting ONLY for him (voting for an additional candidate dilutes your vote). Amos impresses me as willing to stick his neck out and fight for change in a system that is stuck in a rut.
Tam Union spends way too much time and money on approaches, projects, and endeavors that clearly aren’t improving outcomes. It’s time for change.
As Amos’ campaign slogan says, he’s “Not Another Rubber Stamp.”
Active in community affairs, Lucy Dilworth has served as the Foreperson of the Marin County Civil Grand Jury (2019-2020). She is a member of the SMART Citizens Oversight Committee and a director on the board of the Coalition of Sensible Taxpayers (CO$T).