Summit Preparatory Charter High School Executive Director Mary Beth Thompson was elected into the Sequoia Union High School District (SUHSD) Board of Trustees.
Thompson won over her opponents Jacob Yurev and Daniel Torunian for Trustee for Area B of the SUHSD Board of Trustees, encompassing San Carlos and Belmont. Thompson has a lengthy background in education, working as a history teacher and later principal for nearly 15 years.
As part of her campaign, Thompson promised ambitious changes to District policy, including changes that impact issues such as education inequality, teacher salaries, and student mental health, arguably one of the most impactful being her policy on detracking.
Detracking is a policy that eliminates many honors courses, which, according to its supporters, would shrink the achievement gap between students and decrease the pressure on students to take advanced classes.
Thompson explained her stance on tracking in a forum between the board candidates hosted on Oct. 10, 2024.
“Neither the district nor myself has any interest in removing any additional honors classes,” Thompson said.
However, Thompson added that contrary to both her opponent’s stances, she is against reinstating recently removed ninth and tenth-grade honors classes.
“The classes that were removed were one or two from the ninth or tenth-grade curriculum were for very specific reasons, to increase the sense of belonging,” Thompson said.
Thompson has also taken a strong stance on mental health, being the first candidate to bring the issue up during the forum.
“What does not exist right now is looking at how our students are impacted by extremely high pressure,” Thompson said.
Additionally, Thompson has promised changes such as increased teacher salaries to aid in teacher retention and support for the retention of ethnic studies as a required course.
Thompson’s plan and policies have drawn support and backlash from parents and the general community.
“Tracking can be problematic in many cases because a lot of the time what ends up happening is tracking happens under socioeconomic lines,” said Sara Rutherford-Quanch, an education researcher for Stanford Research Institute (SRI).
Despite support from the community, Thompson’s views regarding freshman honors classes have drawn criticism from others, many of whom believe that the elimination of advanced courses is harmful to freshmen students.
“It’s very hard for a school to offer one class to fit all freshmen,” said Yangfang Li, a math teacher at Sacred Heart Catholic High School. “Students who get concepts quickly might lose interest while students that need more time may feel discouraged.”
However, Li is supportive of Thompson’s proposed teacher salary raises.
In addition to educators and parents, some students have opinions about Thompson’s policies.
Carlmont sophomore Matthew Spotts believes that Thompson’s policies will harm students more than they will aid them, believing that honors classes should be reinstated for freshmen.
“I’m doing AP Calculus right now, and there are freshmen in the course, so the younger students can certainly do these advanced courses,” Spotts said.
Whatever an individual’s opinions on Thompson, it is clear that Thompson intends to bring some degree of change that will affect many schools, including the Carlmont community.
