Response to recent coverage

When I saw Ms. Beltran's Aug. 28 article about challengers to the Auburn Union School District board of trustees, I was surprised to read that I was elected to the board of trustees in 2014, re-elected in 2018, and re-elected to a third term in 2022. In November 2014, I was a Marine staff sergeant assigned to the Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany, helping our wounded, ill and injured from various military operations. In November of 2018, my daughter had just started her first year at Skyridge, and I was commuting to Sacramento State for a history degree. I was elected (for the first time) alongside Jayson Wedge and Renee Dowd-Grigsby in 2022. That fact was well covered by the Journal at the time. It appears the author is unfamiliar with basic information about me or the Auburn Union School District. Other aspects of this article were just as surprising and inaccurate. Our board didn't close Alta Vista Community Charter School and Rock Creek Elementary School in a mere "effort" to close a budget deficit — consolidating campuses was a necessary part of our successful work to eliminate the structural deficit spending in our annual budget in order to maintain local control of our schools. Together with district and school site staff, we consolidated campuses and restructured the district to teach transitional kindergarten through eighth grade at all sites, and we have shifted district culture to one with respect for the taxpayer's dollar. Today AUSD has no trouble meeting its financial obligations, and we maintain a healthy reserve. Now that we have moved beyond the financial crisis, district staff can spend their time and energy on our students rather than identifying programs to cut in order to pinch pennies while still paying to operate too many school sites. Other statements in this article appear to have been taken at face value from those with a clear political axe to grind. Contrary to the assertions of the article, there was never a DEI policy in AUSD, but there was a "DIE Statement." I'm not rewriting "DEI" as "DIE" to be clever; that was the word order the previous board chose to adopt. And the recall effort against Wedge and I in 2024 that was launched after I asked the County Office of Education to investigate a fellow trustee's misuse of public funds? They suspended their recall attempt because they failed to gather enough signatures by the deadline to place the question on the November ballot. I appreciate the opportunity to set the record straight on these issues, but I would prefer accurate initial reporting. Greg Holt is the Auburn Union School District board president.