The election / Why it matters
Why this election matters to you
Two of five seats on the Mountain View Whisman School District board are on the November 3 ballot. The board sets a $130 million budget, hires and evaluates the superintendent, approves every teacher contract and decides what the district aims for. That reaches well past the families with a child in a classroom today. Pick the description that fits you.
Group one
I have kids in MVWSD schools
The board you elect this November serves a four-year term. For a child entering kindergarten, that is nearly half of their time in the district. For a fourth grader, it is the rest of it.
The board decides what gets cut, and where.
The district budgeted to spend more than it takes in this year, and projects the gap to widen over the next two. Four of every five dollars go to people, so there is no way to close a gap that size without touching classrooms, programs or the adults in them. The five trustees vote on every one of those choices. See the shortfall, the two-year projection and where the money goes.
The board sets the goals your child's school is held to.
MVWSD scores above the county and the state on average, and the average hides a 51-point gap in reading between students who are and are not economically disadvantaged. Math results are below where they were before the pandemic. Whether the district treats that as a headline or as a problem to fix is a board decision. See how student groups perform and scores since 2018-19.
The board approves who teaches your child, and what they are paid.
Teacher contracts, salary schedules and layoff notices all cross the board's desk. MVWSD's average teacher salary trails the county average, in one of the most expensive places to live in the country, and turnover follows pay. See how teachers are paid and students per teacher.
You will hear from the district about budgets and test scores for years. The question on this ballot is who you want asking the hard questions on your behalf.
Group two
I don't have school-age kids in Mountain View
Most Mountain View voters do not have a child in a district school. Almost all of them fund the district, live next to its schools, and own or rent property whose value depends on them.
It is your money.
MVWSD is a community-funded district: roughly nine dollars in ten of its revenue is local property tax, paid directly or through rent. That makes a $130 million public budget one of the largest pots of local tax money in the city, and the school board is its only elected oversight. See where the revenue comes from and how the district is funded.
Schools are why families choose Mountain View, and part of what every home here is worth.
Ask anyone who has bought or sold a house here what the first question from a family was. Good public schools pull families in, hold up values across the whole city, and keep neighborhoods mixed in age and income instead of sorting them. Enrollment has already fallen by nearly nine percent since 2019-20. See how many students the district serves.
Stewardship is the job, and it is measurable.
A board's work is to make sure public money produces public results. MVWSD pays its superintendent in the 97th percentile of California districts while budgeting a deficit and reporting results below pre-pandemic levels for its most vulnerable students. Whether that is the right trade is a fair question for any taxpayer, and this is the only election where you get to ask it. See how leadership pay ranks and the full payroll.
The eight-year-olds in these schools are the people who will staff the clinics, run the businesses and vote on the bonds in this city in 2045. Whether or not they are yours, they are ours.
Group three
My kids aren't in MVWSD schools, yet or anymore
Toddlers, private-school families and parents of high schoolers all have a stake that is easy to overlook: the district is being shaped now for the years they will touch it.
If your child is under five, this board picks the school they will walk into.
A kindergartner in 2029 or 2030 enters a district whose budget, staffing and programs are being set by the trustees elected this year. The district's own projection already shows the fund balance dropping by $16.5 million over the next two years; what gets protected and what gets closed is decided before your child arrives. See the district's two-year projection.
If your kids are at Los Altos or Mountain View High, this is where their classmates come from.
MVWSD is the main feeder for the high school district. How well eighth graders leave it, especially in math, sets the floor for every ninth grade classroom, including your child's. See scores by grade and Sundar's analysis of the 2025-26 results.
If you chose private school, you are still paying for public school, and you still depend on it.
Your property taxes fund the district whether or not you use it, and a strong public option is what keeps Mountain View a place families move to rather than through. A well-run board is the difference between a district you could choose and one you felt you had to leave. See what the district spends per student.
Four-year terms outlast most people's plans. The board elected in November will still be in office when today's toddlers start school and today's eighth graders finish high school.
What you can do