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Virginia Cheung
Virginia Cheung ran for election to the San Francisco Unified Board of Education in California. She lost in the general election on November 5, 2024.
Cheung completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2024. Click here to read the survey answers.
Biography
Virginia Cheung was born in Los Angeles, California. She earned a high school diploma from South Pasadena High School and a bachelor's degree from the University of California, Irvine in 2005. Her career experience includes working in education administration.[1]
Elections
2024
See also: San Francisco Unified School District, California, elections (2024)
General election
General election for San Francisco Unified Board of Education (4 seats)
The following candidates ran in the general election for San Francisco Unified Board of Education on November 5, 2024.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ |  | Jaime Huling (Nonpartisan) | 16.7 | 168,659 |
| ✔ |  | Parag Gupta (Nonpartisan) | 13.8 | 139,340 |
| ✔ |  | Supryia Marie Ray (Nonpartisan) | 12.6 | 127,834 |
| ✔ |  | Matt Alexander (Nonpartisan) | 12.1 | 122,698 |
 | John Jersin (Nonpartisan)  | 12.1 | 122,450 | |
| Virginia Cheung (Nonpartisan) | 10.0 | 101,017 | ||
| Ann Hsu (Nonpartisan) | 8.0 | 81,044 | ||
| Min Chang (Nonpartisan) | 4.8 | 48,550 | ||
 | Laurance Lem Lee (Nonpartisan) | 4.5 | 45,736 | |
| Maddy Krantz (Nonpartisan) | 3.3 | 33,165 | ||
 | Lefteris Eleftheriou (Nonpartisan) | 2.2 | 22,285 | |
| Total votes: 1,012,778 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
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Withdrawn or disqualified candidates
- Andrew C. Edwards (Nonpartisan)
- Deldelp Medina (Nonpartisan)
Endorsements
To view Cheung's endorsements as published by their campaign, click here. Ballotpedia did not identify endorsements for Cheung in this election.
Campaign themes
2024
Ballotpedia survey responses
See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection
Virginia Cheung completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2024. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Cheung's responses. Candidates are asked three required questions for this survey, but they may answer additional optional questions as well.
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As a daughter of refugees, I witnessed how difficult it was for my parents to assimilate in the US. They did not speak English and I did not speak Chinese. We didn’t develop a personal relationship. I was mute for the first five years in school.
Luckily, I had an amazing kindergarten teacher who helped me find my voice and set me on path to become the first in my family to graduate college. I want the same encouragement for all students – nobody should rely on luck to get help.
I’m a product of public schools and I benefited from early prevention programs and differentiated learning. I believe it is a right for every child to have individualized support that best suits their needs. That is to say, every child deserves an excellent education.
As a candidate, I have the most broad experience working with diverse communities in San Francisco. Through my many years of education experience, I know that good strong education, adequately supported educators, and focus on our children in the classrooms works. It works to better student outcomes, it works to keep kids in school, it works to raise more resilient, capable, and successful citizens for a brighter future.- All of our kids deserve the best quality education possible and it is our responsibility to ensure that. A quality education is one the provides children with all of the necessary skills to excel and thrive in this world. A quality education is the key closer of all other gaps. We owe our children quality education.
- Early intervention and individualized support for learners that need extra help is critical. We must establish effective ways to screen students for needs and take culturally appropriate approaches in meeting those needs.
- Our budget must reach the classrooms. We must work together with all relevant stakeholders to ensure that resources are focused on students and teachers.
He was raised by his single mother and his sister. He often tells me I look a lot like my grandma. He says, "You're also a lot like Ma Ma. She helped everyone." Because she helped everyone, she was accused of dissenting and made to suffer. I never had the opportunity to meet her.
My father was in construction so he is loud with a thick Chinese accent. He told me about being invited to play golf with potential clients even though he doesn't own any golf gear or uniform. That didn't stop him. He unintentionally provided entertainment to his hosts as a first timer on the course. He would tell me about how they laughed at him because he didn't know the rules and how to play, but he tells me, "You go anyway and don't accept anyone looking down at you. You are not less than anyone."
Every once in a while he shares stories about his journey leaving his family to swim to Hong Kong. Anyone who had the strength to leave had to make the journey. The "journey" was a thick mountain jungle terrain avoiding armed soldiers and trained military dogs during the day and traveling by foot at night for weeks, then jumping into the open ocean. Whenever I get depressed over a difficulty, I think about his lesson to me, "Just keep moving."
We must develop a citywide culture of and anti-violence, anti-discrimination, and anti-bias which includes required training for all officials, required restorative justice practices to facilitate healing, and robust services for victims citywide, with close collaboration with SFUSD administrators to ensure all entities are held accountable to providing streamlined support system that center on the victim.
We need to hold the administration accountable to establishing proper protocols for:
Grievance procedures that are immediately accessible and provide real-time systems for reporting, investigations, and resolutions. SFUSD must have reliable reporting mechanisms including an anonymous reporting system and confidential hotlines to reach counselors and support groups.
Crisis response infrastructure, which includes appropriate notification of individuals involved, parental engagement, access to peer groups, mediation, restorative justice pathways, and defined consequences to immediately isolate and remove threats on campuses.
Training for staff and students on recognizing, preventing, and responding to sexual harassment and violence, including trauma-informed practices. This should include bystander intervention training and 24/7 crisis response that is victim-centered to ensure the victim can take immediate action and access a support system to protect their safety.
Comprehensive sexual education that starts as early as possible. Implement consent education that includes body autonomy, principles on consent, developing healthy relationships, and setting boundaries.
Grievance procedures that are immediately accessible and provide real-time systems for reporting, investigations, and resolutions. SFUSD must have reliable reporting mechanisms including an anonymous reporting system and confidential hotlines to reach counselors and support groups.
Crisis response infrastructure, which includes appropriate notification of individuals involved, parental engagement, access to peer groups, mediation, restorative justice pathways, and defined consequences to immediately isolate and remove threats on campuses.
Note: Ballotpedia reserves the right to edit Candidate Connection survey responses. Any edits made by Ballotpedia will be clearly marked with [brackets] for the public. If the candidate disagrees with an edit, he or she may request the full removal of the survey response from Ballotpedia.org. Ballotpedia does not edit or correct typographical errors unless the candidate's campaign requests it.
See also
2024 Elections
External links
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Candidate San Francisco Unified Board of Education |
Personal |
Footnotes
- ↑ Information submitted to Ballotpedia through the Candidate Connection survey on October 8, 2024
