Pandemic-era activism, parental-rights battles and a major overhaul of California’s education leadership have put the Chino school board president at the center of a statewide race
Chino Hills, Calif. (Chino Hills Online) —Sonja Shaw went from an unhappy Chino Valley parent to a candidate for state superintendent of public instruction because of the issues that came up around school closures, distance learning and parental involvement that arose during the COVID-19 pandemic. After four years on the Chino Valley Unified School District Board of Education, Sonja Shaw is now one of two candidates running for the state’s top education office in November.
Shaw led all candidates in California’s June 2 primary for the office, earning about 22.6% of the statewide vote, or about 1.74 million votes. Richard Barrera, president of the San Diego Unified School District board and a senior adviser to the incumbent state superintendent Tony Thurmond, was second in the race with about 20.3%, or 1.56 million votes. Two people advanced out of a group of 10 candidates seeking the officially nonpartisan office.
This election pits Shaw against Barrera as a local school board figure running statewide in a race that goes far beyond the traditional questions about school funding and academic standards. Shaw is now closely associated with California’s parental rights movement and has been involved in many controversies involving transgender students, girls’ athletics, displays in classrooms, books in libraries and the power of local school boards.
However, the office Shaw is running for will not resemble the office that Californians have been electing for decades. An education-reform law passed this summer shifts the California Department of Education to the control of a governor-appointed education commissioner beginning in 2027.
An unconventional political career that started during the COVID-19 pandemic
When the pandemic affected California schools in 2020, Shaw was neither an educator nor an elected official. A Chino native who graduated from Ayala High School, she had owned a number of businesses that included fitness centers and photo studios, and raised two daughters who attended the Chino Valley schools. Records show that she was a lifelong community member who was active on education issues prior to getting elected.
The pandemic caused many difficulties for many parents in California, including Shaw, who saw her daughters move to a charter school setting because of the lack of options available due to COVID-19 related closures. Shaw found common cause with parents who thought that they were not receiving enough information from school officials on reopening, masking, etc.
As a consequence, school board meetings became the way for Shaw and other parents to vent their frustration. In early 2022, minutes of the Chino Valley Unified school board meetings show that Sonja and Chris Shaw addressed the board regarding COVID-19.
By then, the political significance of the pandemic had been felt across the state as Republicans and parent-organized movements started looking for candidates in local school board races. Cal Matters reports that in 2022, the California Republican Party provided campaigning help to Shaw and to others who wanted to run for school board seats.
In addition to political support, Shaw also received support from conservative religious activists in the Chino Valley area, including Pastor Jack Hibbs of Calvary Chapel Chino Hills. Reporting on 2022’s election showed that the pastor and the church supported Shaw politically.
Winning a Chino Valley school board seat
In November 2022, Sonja Shaw ran for a seat on the Chino Valley Unified School District Board of Education, Trustee Area 3, against the incumbent board member Christina Gagnier.
The election was close, with Shaw getting 5,190 votes (51.58%) and her opponent Christina Gagnier – 4,873 (48.42%) according to certified San Bernardino County election results.
Winning the election gave Shaw the chance to become not only an activist but also one of the district’s policymakers. She was chosen the board president right after taking the seat and has served in this capacity throughout her term.
Chino Valley Unified School District has approximately 26,000 students in Chino, Chino Hills and surrounding communities. According to the district, the main goals of the district are quality teaching, family engagement and preparing students for college and careers.
However, under Shaw’s leadership, the district also developed a reputation of taking a position on the most controversial social issues in California’s education policy sphere.
Parental notification issue defines Shaw’s tenure as board member
The most significant controversy involving the Chino Valley Unified School District Board of Education was the parental notification policy adopted in 2023 that requires district employees to inform parents about a student’s attempts to use a different name, pronoun or access to programs or facilities associated with a gender that differs from the student’s official records.
Proponents of the policy see it as an issue of protecting parents’ right to know everything about their child’s education experience. Opponents argue that mandatory disclosure of such information may violate students’ privacy and potentially make them vulnerable in the household if their identity is not supported by their family.
As a result, the California Attorney General Rob Bonta sued the district in August 2023. Courts temporarily blocked some parts of the policy, and in September 2024, a San Bernardino County Superior Court ruled that enforcement of the mandatory disclosure provisions of the policy was permanently blocked by the state lawsuit.
Later, in 2025, the California legislature passed AB 1955 which became effective in January 2025. One of the important provisions of the law prohibits public schools from adopting policies which would require disclosing a student’s sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression without their consent except when disclosure is mandated by state law.
The controversy made Sonja Shaw move from a local school board member to the statewide leader among conservative education activists.
Flags, books and prayer at school
The notification controversy was not the only one in Chino Valley Unified School District.
In 2023, the district also passed flag display policy that limits the display of flags on school property to government, military and curricula related flags. Critics say that the restriction is intended specifically to keep out Pride flags while the proponents of the policy argue that classrooms should not be used for the promotion of political views.
According to California’s Public Employment Relations Board, in April 2026, some provisions of the district’s flag display policy interfered with the rights of district employees to freely speak protected by state labor law and the district adopted the restrictions without meeting the bargaining obligations.
The district also developed rules allowing challenges to the contents of the library collections. As a result, the district became involved in a dispute on whether the process of challenging the contents violates the students’ constitutional rights and leads to the removal of certain books that contain sexual content and/or are focused on LGBTQ themes.
Since 2013, California allows transgender students to participate in the sex-separated programs and activities consistent with their gender identity. The Chino Valley board of education challenges the state’s approach to transgender students and in 2025 voted to seek federal intervention on the issue.
The district has a long history of using prayer and making religious statements at school board meetings which led to lawsuits in the past. In 2016, a federal district court ruled against the practice and in 2018, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld this decision. Recently, the district attempted to revive the case and a federal judge refused to hear it in 2025. The appeal of the decision was pending in 2026.
All these controversies combined make the Chino Valley Unified School District the most visible local district in California.
Academics and parental involvement
While the controversial cultural issues brought Shaw national attention, her campaign attempted to broaden the scope of issues to focus on reading, mathematics, career preparation and parental involvement.
According to the official campaign website of Sonja Shaw, the superintendent of public instruction needs to emphasize the importance of focusing on teaching reading, mathematics, CTE and career preparation. The fact that only less than half of students met the state’s standard for English-language arts shows the need to pay attention to academics.
In her campaign, Shaw highlighted the case of Mississippi which implemented a plan with a strong focus on literacy and improved the scores of students in elementary grades.
Another area of interest for Shaw as the candidate for the position of the superintendent is CTE and community colleges which reflects the broader discussion on how California high schools should prepare students for either a four-year university or skilled jobs.
Therefore, she is trying to bring traditional questions about school performance together with the controversial parental issues.
Barrera represents a different coalition
The November ballot also includes Richard Barrera, a longtime San Diego Unified school trustee and the current board president.
Richard Barrera has been serving on the board of San Diego Unified for almost two decades and had a background in labor and community organizing. He has also worked as the senior policy adviser to the incumbent state superintendent Tony Thurmond.
The California Teachers Association endorsed Barrera, providing significant organizational support for his campaign. The association represents more than 300,000 educators and has been the driving force in state superintendent campaigns before.
Campaign finance data obtained from state filings show about $449,000 in individual donations to Sonja Shaw’s campaign while the California Teachers Association spent more than $5 million on the independent expenditures to support Barrera. Independent expenditures are legally different from a campaign spending.
This means that the candidates will get support from the different coalitions through the November election.
A statewide office being redefined
Whichever candidate will win in the November election will be faced with one of the biggest changes in the California’s education governance in decades.
Typically, the superintendent of public instruction manages the California Department of Education and acts as the elected education official of the state. According to the report by California’s Legislative Analyst’s Office, the education governance system in California consists of the superintendent, the State Board of Education, governor and legislature with overlapping responsibilities.
However, in January 2026, about five months prior to June’s primary, the Governor Gavin Newsom proposed a major reform of California’s education governance. The reason for the proposal were the studies conducted in decades that criticized the California’s education governance as fragmented.
Assembly Bill 181 signed on July 10 creates an education commissioner position appointed by the governor and confirmed by the State Senate. Starting from January 2027, this commissioner will manage the Department of Education and assume administrative responsibilities that traditionally fell to the elected superintendent.
The elected superintendent will have an expanded role as a member of education boards including membership in the State Board of Education and various governing bodies of the higher education institutions in the state.
Both supporters and opponents of the bill find the change significant. Supporters believe that it improves the accountability between education policy and administration. Opponents think that it gives the governor too much control over education administration that has been separated from the governor’s control for decades.
The timing of the change is important because the proposal was made public in January 2026, prior to Shaw’s primary victory, but became part of the campaign for the November election.
A difficult but unique path to November
California has not elected a Republican to any partisan statewide office since 2006 when Arnold Schwarzenegger got reelected as the governor and Steve Poizner won the insurance commissioner seat. Superintendents of public instruction are elected in a non-partisan race in California and, therefore, Sonja Shaw and Richard Barrera are running without any party designation on the ballot.
Traditionally, the last Republican elected to this office in California was Max Rafferty in 1962 and 1966.
This illustrates the challenge that Sonja Shaw faces in California, the state which has had a Democratic majority in the statewide elections for almost two decades now. However, her victory in the June primary shows that her coalition of conservative voters, parental rights supporters and the dissatisfied with the public schools system can attract statewide support.
For Chino Valley, this election will continue the political process which started during the pandemic and which turned the district from a supporter of reopening to a controversial player in the state’s education politics.
From the issue of school reopening and temporary transfer of her daughters to a charter school, Sonja Shaw became a local school board member who attracted statewide attention through litigations and legislative actions and now seeks statewide office.
On November 3, voters will choose whether this political movement will continue from the San Bernardino County school district to the statewide level despite the changes in California’s education governance.