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Endorses Wang
The race
This school board election is on the November 3, 2026 general-election ballot in Palo Alto Unified School District (Santa Clara County). Two at-large seats are open — President Shounak Dharap and Trustee Shana Segal are not running again — and three candidates qualified, per the Registrar: Linda Henigin; John Craig; Avery Wang. Voters may vote for up to two. The two winners will work with a new superintendent, Jason Glass, and a district facing millions in budget cuts, per Palo Alto Online's candidate profiles.
The dividing line is documented and specific. Last year the board voted to eliminate ninth-grade honors biology, merging all students into one course — "detracking." Wang and Craig both opposed that decision and oppose detracking; Henigin supported it, per Palo Alto Online and the Mercury News/EdSource reporting summarized by the School Information System. The same split runs through the rest of the race: Wang favors a bell-to-bell high-school cell-phone ban that Henigin and Craig do not support, and Henigin is the most reluctant of the three to scale back teacher raises the other two say must be trimmed to close the budget gap.
The candidates
Avery Wang — challenger. A tech executive and co-founder of Shazam, parent of three district graduates, with a Stanford Ph.D., per The Campanile and Palo Alto Online. His defining file is a proven one: in 2020 he sued the district after it placed his son in a geometry course he had already completed; the district backed down, and in a second parent suit he backed, a judge ruled in 2023 that the district's high-school math placement violated state law — including by forcing students to retake courses they had passed — and ordered the district to pay $38,311 in legal fees. He wants more advanced courses, early math and reading help, a bell-to-bell phone ban, and an audit of vendor contracts including a $500,000 no-bid math placement test, per Garry's List's race summary. Credit: he has beaten this district in court on behalf of students being held back — litigation as documented parental-rights work, not rhetoric. Dirt: none proven found; his opponents' camp has accused his side of campaign hardball in the email controversy below, which Palo Alto Online's review found largely without merit as to the broader claims.
John Craig — challenger. An engineer and tech executive, parent, who has led multinational teams, per Palo Alto Online. He was moved to run by the board's expensive separation agreements with former superintendents, argues the district has more lawsuits than almost any other and tends to lose them, and campaigns on transparency: "whenever there's an option, between closed and open session, have an open session." Credit: a governance-and-transparency platform aimed at documented district weaknesses (the lawsuits he cites include Wang's). Dirt: he co-authored the report accusing Henigin of improper campaign use of district resources; Palo Alto Online reviewed the applicable laws and policies and reported that, beyond her acknowledged district-email use, "some of the broader complaints appear to lack merit." We print the accusation and the review's verdict together; the unproven parts are not priced against either candidate.
Linda Henigin — challenger. A classroom aide in the district and longtime PTA volunteer, endorsed by both employee unions, the South Bay Labor Council and the county Democratic Party, per Garry's List and Palo Alto Online. She supported combining Biology and Biology Honors, sides with the board majority on detracking while also wanting access to advanced courses, and is the most reluctant to scale back teacher raises — the teachers union is openly urging her supporters to "bullet vote" for her alone to protect her seat, per the Palo Alto Daily Post. Credit: a career inside classrooms and the full backing of the district's labor establishment. Dirt: she acknowledged using her district email on several occasions in connection with her campaign rollout, per Palo Alto Online; the wider coordination charges against her are, on that paper's review, unproven and are not priced here. A lawsuit challenging her "math teacher/mother" ballot title was dismissed as filed too late; the title stands, per Garry's List.
Pros and cons
- Wang — Pro: A court-proven record of forcing this district to follow the law on student placement; anti-detracking; advanced coursework; vendor-contract audit; data-driven academics. Con: The phone-ban position puts him against both opponents and, on the record available, much of the district's mainstream; litigation-first instincts are a style risk in a governance seat.
- Craig — Pro: Transparency as a stated operating rule; fiscal focus on superintendent payouts and legal losses; anti-detracking. Con: His campaign's signature attack on Henigin was, in its broader claims, found wanting by the local paper's review.
- Henigin — Pro: Classroom experience; union and party establishment backing; continuity with the current board majority. Con: That continuity is the issue — she defends the detracking decision and the raise structure the budget math is pressing on, and she used district email for campaign purposes by her own acknowledgment.
Record gaps
Searches run: the Registrar's qualified list (roster); Palo Alto Online's candidate profiles (Oct. 2, 2026), its League of Women Voters forum report, and its report on the campaign allegations, including its independent review of the email claims; The Campanile's editorial endorsement; the Palo Alto Daily Post's bullet-voting report; Garry's List's race analysis (a partisan-leaning local newsletter; its factual roster of endorsements and the math-litigation history agree with the newsroom sources); Mercury News/EdSource detracking reporting as summarized by the School Information System. All three candidates have substantial documented files; the gaps here are at the level of individual board votes these three would cast, not their records — none of the three has served on this board.
OUR CALL
At-large (vote for up to two) — endorse Avery Wang and John Craig. Wang's endorsement rests on proof, not promises: he sued this district, won on the law, and stands for the advanced coursework Palo Alto families keep having to fight the district to keep. Craig's rests on the transparency rule this page applies everywhere — open session by default, superintendent payouts and legal losses treated as the fiscal issues they are. Henigin is a decent classroom servant running as the candidate of the status quo that produced the detracking fight and the budget squeeze; we do not endorse the status quo. (The Campanile, the Palo Alto High student paper, reached the same pairing from its own reporting; we note the agreement and rest on the record above.)
For the complete Election 2026 breakdown — every race, claim by claim — see the full coverage on our website. Vote early. Research your candidates. Choose the best moderates, whatever their party — no extremism from either side. And encourage your friends and family to do the same. --- Sources - Santa Clara County Registrar of Voters — Final Qualified List of Local Eligible Candidates, Nov 3 2026 General Election — https://files.santaclaracounty.gov/exjcpb1296/2026-09/qualified-list-of-local-candidates-9-28-26.pdf?VersionId=CM6jbwAVTLFIjLakj6hJku2l9KPAIxli - Palo Alto Online — Incoming class: Meet the candidates for the Palo Alto school board (Oct. 2, 2026) — https://www.paloaltoonline.com/election/2026/10/02/incoming-class-meet-the-candidates-for-the-palo-alto-school-board/ - Palo Alto Online — School board candidates talk budget, transparency and belonging at forum — https://www.paloaltoonline.com/palo-alto-schools/2026/09/25/school-board-candidates-talk-budget-transparency-and-belonging-at-forum/ - Palo Alto Online — As election draws near, allegations fly in Palo Alto school board race — https://www.paloaltoonline.com/palo-alto-schools/2026/10/07/as-election-draws-near-allegations-fly-in-palo-alto-school-board-race/ - The Campanile — Vote Wang, Craig for school board — https://thecampanile.org/36952/editorial/vote-wang-craig-for-school-board-election/ - Palo Alto Daily Post — Teachers' union is encouraging 'bullet voting' to help Linda Henigin — https://padailypost.com/2026/10/15/school-board-is-encouraging-bullet-voting-to-help-linda-henigin/ - Garry's List — The Fight for the Heart of Palo Alto's Schools — https://garryslist.org/posts/the-fight-for-the-heart-of-palo-alto-s-schools
Result pending. No verified call (Associated Press or official) as of November 4, 2026. This page will be updated when the race is called or certified. The original article above is unchanged.
AI-assisted article — but the sources are human, and the facts are very real.