My name is Kevin Hayakawa and I'm running for the Rowland Unified School District Board of Education in Trustee Area 5. I’m a proud product of RUSD schools for my entire K-12 education. I exclusively attended elementary, middle, and high school within Trustee Area 5—at Ybarra Academy, Telesis Academy, and Rowland High School. I can bring a unique former student perspective to RUSD. I think it’s time we finally elect a school board member who attended our local public schools in the 21st century.
In addition, as a current CSU and former community college physics professor, I can bring not only an educator's perspective, but specifically bridge the divide between our high school graduates and the two- and four-year college opportunities that await them.
Future generations of RUSD students deserve the same equitable access to educational opportunities that I had growing up. But RUSD is moving backwards in terms of STEM education—it’s time we bring back college-level AP/IB Physics courses to our high schools to better prepare our future engineers, biologists, chemists, physicists, mathematicians, and computer scientists.
Your taxpayer dollars are important to me. As your water board representative, I am proud to have passed a $40 million balanced budget with surplus the past two years in a row. I will continue to be a responsible steward of our public school finances in the future.
BIOGRAPHY: Born and raised in Rowland Heights, Kevin Hayakawa is a proud International Baccalaureate alumnus of John A. Rowland High School. He graduated from UC Berkeley with a double major in Physics and Astrophysics. Dr. Hayakawa holds a Ph.D. in Astronomy and Astrophysics from UCLA. He has 7+ years of teaching experience in Physics and Astronomy in all three public systems of higher education in California: University of California, California State University, and California Community Colleges.