About Us
Who we are
Tam Union Governance Alliance is an independent, nonpartisan community organization committed to supporting transparent governance, sound stewardship, and academic excellence in the Tamalpais Union High School District.
Why we exist
Over the past several years, community concern about decisions coming out of the Tamalpais Union High School District has grown steadily. The Black Student Support Team. Tamiscal. TEAM Academy. Program changes, staffing reductions, and budget shifts that families and educators say arrived without warning and without a clear explanation of why.
Tam Union Governance Alliance is not about any single one of these issues.
What connects them is a pattern in how the decisions were made: the data used to justify them, whether affected families and educators were meaningfully consulted, whether the reasoning was shared with the community before or only after the vote, and whether trustees have been willing to answer questions once concerns are raised.
We believe our district can do better than that. Not because the individual decisions are always wrong, but because a healthy district weighs evidence in public, engages the community as a genuine partner, and communicates with the honesty that families are owed.
Our work is to hold that standard up, consistently, across whatever issue comes next.
What we're focused on
We evaluate district decisions on three questions. Not whether we agree with the outcome, but whether the process met the standard our community deserves.
How was the decision made?
Was the item placed on the agenda with enough advance notice for the community to understand it? Was there real deliberation, or was the outcome effectively decided before the public meeting? Were dissenting perspectives on the board and in the community given a fair hearing?
What data was used to justify it?
Was the evidence complete and accurate? Were enrollment figures, budget numbers, and outcome data presented in context, or selectively? When the community has questioned the underlying numbers, has the district responded with clarity or with silence?
How was it communicated to the community?
Did families, students, teachers, and neighbors learn about the change in time to weigh in? Was the reasoning shared plainly, or wrapped in language that obscures the actual impact? Were public comments treated as input, or as a procedural formality?
Our principles
We are nonpartisan.
We do not endorse a political party. Our members hold a range of political views. What we share is a belief that good governance is a nonpartisan value, one that both progressive and conservative communities should defend.
We work from the public record.
Every claim we make is grounded in board meeting minutes, published budgets, public records requests, and other documented sources. We invite verification and we correct errors promptly when they are identified.
We focus on process, not personalities.
Our work centers on how decisions are made and whether the process serves students. We ask hard questions about governance because we believe the answers matter, and because families deserve to see the reasoning behind changes that affect their children's education.
We are locally rooted.
The Alliance is funded by community members and led by residents of the Tamalpais Union High School District attendance area. We do not accept contributions from outside interest groups or from anyone with a business interest in district decisions.
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