Palo Altans will choose from a pool of five candidates to fill the three open seats on the school board in the Nov. 8 election.

Incumbents Heidi Emberling and Melissa Baten Caswell are running against hopefuls Jay Blas Jacob Cabrera, Todd Collins and Jennifer DiBrienza.

This election comes at a pivotal time for the Palo Alto Unified School District, as it’s struggling to recover from a multi-million dollar budget shortfall. Verde reached out to all of the candidates by email to learn about the campaigns.

With such impassioned individuals running for office, voters have a tough choice to make. To PAUSD parent Kurt Milne, the most qualified candidate is one who is prepared to make tactful decisions when it comes down to it.

“I think it’s important to vote for somebody that can thoughtfully make a hard trade-off … somebody who can weigh the pros and cons of different issues,” Milne stated.