A 27 year Pleasanton resident, Mary Jo Carreon has dedicated her career to serving students and families. She first knew she wanted to be a teacher in the 3rd grade when she had an excellent teacher. 

An elementary school teacher for 26 years in the Pleasanton Unified School District, she retired in 2020. For the past 20 years, she taught 2nd grade at Alisal Elementary School.

Mary Jo is an award winning teacher receiving a PUSD Excellence in Education Award, a Distinguished Teacher Award from the Charles and Helen Schwab Foundation, and a Who's Who of American Teachers. 

Mary Jo has a Bachelor's Degree in Communication and a teaching credential from UC Davis.

She lives with her husband Jim. Her two children, Nick and Kaitlyn, attended and graduated from Pleasanton schools.

All Pleasanton Unified School District (PUSD) students deserve a Quality Education. I have 25 years education experience with a double M.Ed. in Administration (Rutgers) and Curriculum/Technology (Houston), with a California Administrative Credential. As an eLearning instructor and developer for over 10 years, I facilitate online courses using relevant strategies for engagement and student motivation, paramount now for effective eLearning instruction. I am a former educational consultant, having worked with Pearson Education as a change agent to improve student achievement in districts nationwide. With my 3 children attending PUSD, I am also actively involved in our community as a Youth Commissioner, and I served on PUSD’s Reopening Steering Committee. With my experience as an Executive Director and President of the Board for two nonprofits, I have the executive leadership skills essential as a trustee to make fiscal decisions and policies. 

High-quality eLearning instruction, valid assessments, effective instructional strategies, meaningful social interactions, and creative, inquiry-based learning must be strengthened for our diverse students’ needs during these challenging times, due to social distancing, which demands flexible delivery methods of instruction. I am uniquely qualified to tackle these priorities with my demonstrated experience as an eLearning education professional, coupled with my strong leadership background. As a Trustee for the PUSD School Board, I will use this knowledge to ensure every child has access to a Quality Education!

I have the experience as an eLearning instructor and course writer to know what it takes to engage students with eLearning.

The time has come to rethink current trends for eLearning when dealing with the pandemic (COVID-19). The goal must be the same: to ensure every child has equal access to a positive learning experience, while also respecting diverse learner differences, whether culturally, emotionally, and/or academically.

Instruction that is flexible and yet, engaging for our students is a must with eLearning instruction, such as, small group virtual tasks and hands on tasks when students are expected to work independently.

Social and emotional programs that are specifically aligned with the COVID pandemic is a must. This means specific support with tech addiction issues, Zoom fatigue, and how to support our students through social (but safe) engagement with their peers for social benefits.

Strengthen Hands-On & Authentic Learning

Students learn through many different ways (i.e. visually, auditorily) and need frequent interactive and hands-on projects, especially during this pandemic. Whether its science experiments, integrated writing with art tasks, or technology and math investigations, these types of activities allow students to be more innovative, inquisitive, and creative.

Not only can S.T.E.A.M. can serve as a vehicle, but so can in-depth research tasks, application projects, and other activities that require students to solve real-life problems at all grade levels that are age appropriate even with eLearning instruction. Our children can lead their own inquiries that can make their learning more relevant and meaningful.

Authentic assessments guide student learning that is essential for making learning relevant for every child. Students need more opportunities to demonstrate their learning by “doing” rather than just “answering” test questions such as, self reflections, portfolios, and performance tasks in all subject areas, like science, math, and social studies.

Advocate for every student, parent, and educator.

For Our Students: Every child is unique, including individual interests, personal learning styles, and cultural perspectives. We must advocate for every student to find their own voice with more choice-driven learning tasks through authentic learning, whether it’s investigating their own passions or through culturally diverse-based lessons.

We must advocate for every parent to express their own voice by initiating frequent collaboration with school leaders and with open communication to express their unique views, while strengthening partnerships with our families and our school community.

We must advocate for every educator, ensuring their own professional needs are met and that they are provided with adequate resources to support eLearning and to help provide culturally responsive learning environments for their students.

Making fiscal decisions that are data-driven.

During these economic hardships due to the pandemic, alternative funding options need to be further investigated, while strengthening community and city partnerships. Specific fundraising initiatives with clear transparency of how funds are allocated when seeking funding support is a must to build trust with our residents.

Consistency of Programs and Curricula

Consistency promotes equity for all students. The implementation of consistent programs and curricular initiatives within EVERY school achieves these district-wide goals. Examples include, but not limited to:

• The benefits of a fine arts program at every elementary school so that every child can expand creative thinking skills.
• Strengthening transition programs to prepare students going into middle school, into high school and in preparation for after high school.
• Providing a more robust and consistent program that is available for our advanced learners

My two children, Max and Ally attended Pleasanton schools K-12 and are now attending college. Once my kids started elementary school, I got involved and became active at our school and in school district activities. Every year, I became more knowledgeable about public school and the landscape of public education statewide. I gained much of my knowledge about PUSD through being involved in our local PTA. My first leadership role was PTA President at Alisal Elementary, then I became a founding member, created the first Wellness Committee, and eventually President of the Pleasanton PTA Council. I was invited to serve on the CA State PTA Board of Managers from 2007-2015. I had many leadership roles: Vice-chair of the Health Commission, Chair, Resolution Committee, and the Diversity and Inclusion Committee Chair. I represented the State PTA on several CA Department of Education Committees including the CA State Superintendent of Public Instruction, Tom Torlakson’s Environmental Blue Print Task Force.  

Before getting elected to the school board in 2008, I was a member of the Budget Advisory Committee and served on the Excellence Committee. I have been an advocate for student health issues and in 2003 worked to get a school board policy adopted on Managing Food Allergies in Schools. I was a major contributor to the original PUSD Wellness Policy. Over the years, I volunteered on many committees, including one of the first Go Green Committees and the Sun Safety Initiative. In other volunteer roles, I have served as an Executive Board Member on the Alameda County Tobacco Tax Coalition (oversight for the Master Settlement Agreement), the Greater Bay Area Coordinated School Health Planning Committee and on the Executive Board of the Peralta District PTA, which serves Alameda County PTA units.

In my professional life, I am employed by Alameda County Health Care Services Agency. I have held several positions, for nine years as part of the start-up team for Country’s largest youth development center, located in the underserved unincorporated area of the County as the Community and Public Relations Manager. I also managed a project for the Emergency Medical Services Department (EMS) that allowed me to work with all 18 school districts throughout the County on a CPR program for 7th graders. The most satisfying aspect of my job is working with the families and our community partners. Currently, I am assigned to the office of the agency director as a program and policy analyst. It is a true honor to serve the public in my day job!

Accountability and transparency can be an elusive concept. However, my experience as a school board member has led me to believe that accountability happens when we are clear about our goals and objectives and how we are meeting the goals and objectives. Transparency happens by asking the right questions and communicating the information back out to the community. A board member is the community representative that provides oversight that governs with respect, head, and heart.

The right culture of the Board and executive staff is also needed to promote accountability and transparency. In large part, school board members can only make good decisions based on the information that the staff provides. This includes bringing us thoughts and concerns from our associations.  There has to be an environment where board members can ask questions freely and request reports, data, background, etc. to understand the agenda items that need to be approved.

A culture of collaboration and the ability to have democratic discussions about the issues is critical. The Board must adopt budgets and policies, set direction, provide oversight, and maintain a 30,000-foot view of the District. I will continue to work hard tirelessly to maintain this culture.

I will always reach out to community members to weigh in on important actions. I am accessible and will take the time to listen and help navigate the school district. I am a dedicated school board member, always making sure our student's voices are heard. It is a board member's role to advocate for public education and feel it is critical to build and maintain a good working relationship with our legislators.