Meet Santa Clara Unified Board of Trustees Candidates

The Santa Clara Unified School District (SCUSD) has three seats open this election, two seats in Trustee Area 2 and one seat in Trustee Area 3.

 

Trustee Area 2 

Bonnie Lieberman

Lieberman is the mother of two daughters in SCUSD, one at Laurelwood Elementary and the other at Peterson Middle School.

She is a graduate of Santa Clara University and worked in corporate law for 15 years before leaving to raise her daughters full-time and pursue a new career in early education. Lieberman works as a teacher at Laurelwood Preschool, a private, non-profit, parent participation preschool in Santa Clara.

She has served as the Laurelwood Elementary School PTA President and Secretary, and two terms on the Laurelwood Elementary School Site Council, most recently as chairperson.

She has also worked to help design the new elementary school at the former Patrick Henry school site.

 

Albert Gonzalez

Gonzalez is the father of three boys. Two of them attend Wilcox High School and the third graduated from Wilcox.

He has served on the SCUSD School Board since his first election in 2008. He has worked hard with his fellow Board Members to bring equity to all students in the District including free bussing for students and free AP and SAT testing.

Gonzalez represents Region 20 (Santa Clara County) in Sacramento as a member of the California School Boards Association. He started as a delegate in 2010 before taking on the role as representative.

Gonzalez graduated from Cal Poly. He currently works as an electrical engineer at a semiconductor company.

 

Mark Richardson

Richardson is the father of two sons who attend school in SCUSD. He is completing his first-term on the SCUSD School Board. He is currently the Board Clerk.

He is the founder and president of The Lowell Slater Richardson Foundation, a foundation named after his late-father who was a California public school teacher. Through the foundation, 11 “at risk” SCUSD students have been awarded $9,000 for college scholarships. Richardson is also a regular volunteer at Santa Clara Community Day School.

Prior to joining the school board, Richardson worked on the Sunnyvale Community Advisory Committee. He has also served in many roles at Ponderosa Elementary school including PTA treasurer, PEPCO Board Member and School Site Council Board Member.

 

Trustee Area 3

Andrew Knaack

Knaack is a product of the SCUSD school system. He graduated from Milliken Elementary School, Peterson Middle School and Wilcox High School, the same high school his mother graduated from.

He currently works as the Associate Director of Individual Giving for the Ronald McDonald House Charities Bay Area. He has previously worked with AmeriCorps and LifeMoves, a homeless shelter network.

Knaack is the chair of the Santa Clara Parks & Recreation Commission until 2022. This is his second-term on the commission.

He also works on the Board of the Japantown Community Congress of San Jose and spent more than a decade in Rotary International.

 

Michele Ryan

Ryan is the mother of two current SCUSD students and one SCUSD graduate. She has served on the School Board since 2012. Twice, she served as President of the Board.

During her time on the School Board, she has worked to help build four new schools and create Mission Early College High School.

Ryan is the only credentialed teacher on the School Board. She has taught in everything K through college and has credentials in the subjects of Math, Biology, Social Studies and English. She earned an MBA from Cambridge University in April 2020.