Three candidates running for school board seats on Nov. 3 in different races — San Lorenzo Valley, Soquel Union, PVUSD — have said that schools focus too much on non-academic topics, including LGBTQ+ issues. (Amaya Edwards — Santa Cruz Local/Report for America)

SANTA CRUZ COUNTY >> As the race for California superintendent of school hinges on policies regarding LGBTQ+ students, the same issues are showing up in local school board races in Santa Cruz County.

Three candidates have said that schools focus too much on non-academic topics, including LGBTQ+ issues. The candidates are: Ashleigh Hopkins for Area 4 of the San Lorenzo Valley Unified School District, Robin Sukow for Area 1 of the Pajaro Valley Unified School District, and Andrea Hopkins for Area 4 of Soquel Elementary Unified School District. 

All three say their concerns do not stem from discriminatory attitudes against the LGBTQ+ community, including students. 

But some in the local community think the two are inseparable — especially in a national climate increasingly hostile to transgender people and heightened criticism over what’s being taught in public schools.

Inform your vote!

Candidates’ views

In an interview with Santa Cruz Local, Ashleigh Hopkins, a third-generation resident of the San Lorenzo Valley, said that she’s more politically centrist than people assume from her campaign headshot in a cowboy hat. “A lot of people think I look like a walking Trump sticker, but I’m not,” she said.

People may also be surprised to learn that her child is transgender, she said. 

“I’m incredibly supportive,” she said. But she believes that her child’s identity — and the identities of other students — may have been unduly influenced by the school environment at SLV Middle School. 

“I just think that there’s a difference between allowing a supportive learning environment for a specific group of children, and then I think that the scales tip a little bit, and at some point it becomes a little overcorrected,” she said. That includes “a lot of subliminal exposure,” she said, like rainbow flags and support groups at lunch.

That exposure led Hopkins to pull her child from school to be homeschooled. She said she wants more parents to know they can opt their child out of exposure to LGBTQ+ topics, per a 2025 Supreme Court ruling to protect parents’ religious freedom. 

Hopkins plans to reenroll in the district next year.

“A lot of people think I look like a walking Trump sticker, but I’m not,” said Ashleigh Hopkins, a candidate running for a school board seat in San Lorenzo Valley Unified in the Nov. 3 General Election. (Contributed)

Hopkins positions herself as a common-sense candidate who wants to focus on academics and more proactively listen to parent concerns. She said SLV High School has focused too much on niche courses like hydroponics at the detriment of Advanced Placement classes that can help kids get into college. 

This school year, SLV High offered 15 Advanced Placement classes, according to a class schedule. The school generally makes enough space for any interested students to have a seat, said Superintendent Christopher Schiermeyer. Students can also take classes that qualify for college credit through a partnership with Cabrillo College.

Although Hopkins said she has heard that a state-funded class about LGBT and diversity studies has been mandated in some years, Schiermeyer said that no such class exists. Some versions of classes in art, English and other topics include an ethnic studies emphasis, he said, but are not state-funded and not required. 

Hopkins also said she’s concerned that one girls’ bathroom at SLV High has been redesignated as gender neutral. The change was to comply with state law, and there are multiple nearby girls-only bathrooms, Schiermeyer said. 

Hopkins is seeking to unseat incumbent Gail Levine, a former superintendent of Bonny Doon Elementary School District who has held her school board seat for 10 years. Levine is a longtime advocate for LGBTQ+ students. In the 1990s, as a vice principal at Santa Cruz High, she helped students create the county’s first LGBTQ+ club for students.

In a questionnaire for Santa Cruz Local’s election guide, Levine wrote that she wants to “Continue to provide high level college and career programs for all students.” Levine did not respond to follow-up requests for comment on Hopkins’ views. 

Other candidates

Robin Sukow, running for a seat on the board of PVUSD, said he has heard from concerned community members that students are being “subjected to programs and/or curriculum that emphasize that kind of situation,” referring to LGBTQ+ identities. That “is totally distracting from trying to teach our kids the basics in education, that we have to be concerned with someone else’s sexuality or preferences,” he said. Although kids should be protected from bullying, he said, LGBTQ+ topics “are not a school issue.” 

Sukow also said that he wants to ensure that girls’ sports do not include transgender students, as is allowed by state law. “To see that that space invaded, whether you identify as a woman or not, I think that’s way out of line,” he said.

Robin Sukow, a candidate running for a school board seat in PVUSD in the Nov. 3 General Election, said that he wants to ensure that girls’ sports do not include transgender students, as is allowed by state law. (Amaya Edwards — Santa Cruz Local/Report for America)

Andrea Locke did not respond to requests for comment. Lookout Santa Cruz reported that she was concerned that LGBTQ+ topics are being taught to elementary-aged children. 

An endorsement on Locke’s website, attributed to a Santa Cruz County resident named Chelsea, says that Locke, “believes adults should be free to live their lives as they choose, while also believing that parents have an important role in decisions involving their children and that schools should keep age-appropriateness and children’s well-being at the center of policy.”

Andrea Locke is running for a school board seat in Soquel Elementary Unified School District. She did not respond to requests for comment, but Lookout Santa Cruz reported that she was concerned that LGBTQ+ topics are being taught to elementary-aged children. (Contributed)

State and national context

The local fight over LGBTQ+ issues in schools is playing out across the state and the wider U.S. 

Sonia Shaw, a candidate for California Superintendent of Schools, rose to prominence as a board member in Chino Valley Unified School District. She has been outspoken in her opposition to transgender girls playing in girls’ sports, and supports parents’ rights to determine when and how their children interact with LGBTQ+ curriculum. 

Nationwide, candidates for state and federal office from both major parties are campaigning on similar promises and viewpoints.

To Adam Spickler, a trustee for Cabrillo College and Santa Cruz County’s first transgender elected official, the three candidates represent a worrying national trend that he’s encountered “more locally than I would have hoped to find.” 

Contrary to cultural messaging, “it is very rare to find instances of youth identifying with something that’s truly not their identity,” he said. “It’s not the inclusivity that puts any children in harm’s way — it’s the opposite.” 

Multiple studies have found that LGBTQ+ affirming school policies, including inclusive curricula, are associated with fewer suicidal thoughts and attempts from LGBTQ+ identified youth.

LGBTQ+ inclusion has given many students “the ability to be out and feel safe in being out” and has led other students to become strong community allies. “Those are the two great things that have happened, and neither of those should be squelched,” he said.

To Spickler, the emergence of these three candidates indicates two things: first, that the federal policies and rhetoric about trans people is successfully changing public sentiment. And second, it “points to some complacency that there isn’t more outrage at ourselves at having not better educated folks on our issues,” he said. “That’s why it’s so important to stay engaged in LGBTQ advocacy.”

Questions or comments? Email [email protected]. Santa Cruz Local is supported by members, major donors, sponsors and grants for the general support of our newsroom. Our news judgments are made independently and not on the basis of donor support. Learn more about Santa Cruz Local and how we are funded.