MEET TINA | Tina

I was heartened to learn from parents who have grown children or kids in private school that many of them strongly believe in public schools. Whether parents have their kids in private or public, small class size is important to them. As a former classroom teacher, I understand the difficulty in teaching a class of over 30 students. Reducing class size is my top priority.

Meet Tina

Classroom teacher before I was a mom

Like many constituents in the district, I am a product of public schools. Public schools are foundational to a democracy. I have a degree in Mathematics from UC San Diego. I taught at all three levels: elementary, middle and high school. As a credentialed classroom math teacher, I taught middle school and high school, then as a third grade teacher assistant for PUSD. I am passionate about education and want to see our district schools succeed as a whole.

Active parent standing up for families across the district

I'm a mother of two PUSD students. I've lived with my husband, and two daughters in Pasadena for ten years. I'm one of those parents who doesn't leave after the bell rings. I've been an active parent volunteer at Willard Elementary School, serving on PTA Board for multiple terms as Vice President, Treasurer, Legislative Advocate. My involvement goes beyond my daughters' schools. That's why when a proposal was made to open a new charter school in 2020, I spoke up at school board to question the proposal and showed up again to praise the district leadership in their decision to start a new dual language program instead.

Limited resources can pit schools and families against each other. As a future Board member, I want to work with fellow Board members and families to unite and organize them to fight for more funding so all students benefit in an equitable way.

Advocate and coalition-builder in the community

After years of political advocacy and legislative visits about healthcare, tenants rights, and environmental justice, I came to realize that what we parents had been doing, raising money at individual schools is just a bandaid for a problem that is systemic to education. So I redirected my advocacy work to education. In 2019, I partnered with community leaders to lobby our state representatives to pass legislation which increased charter school accountability. This year, I joined in the statewide effort to put legislation on the ballot, a historic opportunity to bring billions of dollars to California public schools. Vote Yes on Prop 15!