After an hours-long interview process with 12 applicants, the Los Gatos-Saratoga Union High School District (LGSUHSD) board of trustees decided to appoint Los Gatos resident Shawn Mortensen as its fifth member on March 11. The appointment was made necessary after Alex Shultz’s resignation in January.
For Mortensen, who has lived in Los Gatos for almost a decade, this won’t be his first time serving the community. The Los Gatos High parent and former Los Gatos Little League coach has also been the president of the Los Gatos Home and School Club, which recruits parent volunteers and hosts community events, since October 2020.
The Falcon interviewed Mortensen after the board’s March 11 regular meeting, in which the new trustee led the Pledge of Allegiance and cast his first votes on various board items, including contracts for emergency communications systems. This interview has been lightly edited for clarity and brevity.
What drew you to Los Gatos, and what do you do outside of your position as school board member?
I’m a Michigan kid at heart; I grew up in Michigan before coming to Northern California for work. When my wife and I decided to buy a home here, we really started by exploring the local neighborhoods to see, frankly, the school districts — what was the most compelling place for our kids, ideally public schools that we could access. That led us to Los Gatos, and I’ve been here for nine years now.
As far as what I do, I’m employed as a business development director — in other words, I work for a big commercial general contractor, and my job is to go out and find projects for us to bid on and ultimately build.
You’re also involved in other parts of the community — can you talk a bit about some of those positions you hold?
For the last four years, I’ve been the president of the Los Gatos Home and School Club; that’s really kind of what got me engaged not only with Los Gatos High School, but also in the community.
Outside of the school setting, I’ve been very active up until a couple of years ago, coaching my daughter through her years in recreational soccer with Los Gatos United. More recently, I coached both of my twin sons for several years — until they were 12 — for Los Gatos Little League.
What does being president of the Los Gatos Home and School Club involve, and what does that type of role mean for you?
It’s been a real blessing in disguise. I originally didn’t see myself as taking a leading role. After I joined, which was near the start of the pandemic, the past leadership graduated, meaning the club essentially dissolved and I was thrust into the position of president. For me, a lot of that role has been reestablishing the traditions of Los Gatos High — making sure we kept traditional activities going and supporting the teachers, students and staff.
Throughout the next three years of that process, we’ve now built a structure where parents like myself, who want to get involved, can lead different focuses for us — whether that be student engagement around career pathways, volunteerism or special events. We support the events the school puts on, from dances to teacher recognition programs and things like that and then put activities together for the students, parents and staff to really drive engagement, community and family.
What motivated you to apply for the position of school board trustee?
I’m not close personal friends with Alex Shultz, but I know him relatively well and respect him a great deal. For me, this was an opportunity to carry on the work that he had begun.
I’m moving on from the home and school club, so this was also a way for me to remain engaged in and hopefully chart a successful path to carry forward my vested interest in the district. I’ve got my own kids going to the school, so I want to continue to make sure that these schools not only continue to excel as they have but continue to even get better. For me, that comes with a price of my own time and effort; it’s a way for me to stay engaged, to have a voice in the community, to hear and respect the community’s wishes for the school district and pass them along to the other board members and chart a path accordingly.
What do you hope to accomplish through this position and what do you hope to gain personally from being in this position?
For me, this isn’t about personal gain. I’m not in this from a political perspective — I guess there’s no truly altruistic thing, but my intentions are entirely about this community. The focus of this board should be on students as our North Star — so finding out what is best for our students, the resources we need to provide and the direction we need to set to maintain that course.
From there, it’s about providing the resources to attract and retain the best teachers and the best administrative staff. And then, of course, continuing to provide the physical resources that all of our departments need to give students a world-class public education that rivals some of the surrounding private educations. Being able to offer both communities, Saratoga and Los Gatos, that level of education in a public setting, to me, is paramount.
So that’s what is driving me — how do I not only set a successful path for my own children but every other kid in the community? We want to make sure that we’re giving them a great step forward as they head off into their next chapter.
What are some of the biggest strengths you see within our school district that you hope that we can build upon?
To me, a lot of it really starts with the families that reside in the community. We have a great deal of historical success; the pride that people already have in the schools is very evident and justified. Both schools play a pivotal role as the centers of our communities, which is a huge strength.
Then, you get into the blood, sweat, tears and dollars that parents put back into these schools. Obviously, there are bond measures where we pay property taxes to support the schools, but, my gosh, we also get a ton of additional funding from folks actually donating their money to do things that we wouldn’t normally otherwise be able to do.
We also have a very active community of parents who want to physically get involved — through the home school club, through the PTSO or other means — those folks are not only giving their time and energy but also expertise. We have such a varied pool of knowledge and skills just within our parent community, and it’s so neat to be able to draw from that, and offer programs for students to learn from people in the industry.
That, to me, is very unique to this area, and the fact that we have it in such a small district is pretty amazing and it allows us to really do things that are quite special for students.
What are you most excited about for this upcoming school year and the future of the district as a whole?
I look at the team that has been compiled and continues to be compiled, and that’s what I get excited about.
I’ve been excited in my capacity through the home and school club because I get to be around some amazing parents that want to do wonderful things, you know, in support of the students and staff. That goes for both schools — the work that the Saratoga team is doing is equally impressive.
So I was already excited coming in, but this to me is on a grander scale. We still have superintendent Heath Rocha, who is extremely passionate about setting a successful path for the future. And then you’ve got a group of five folks on the board, who all I think have a common goal of creating that world-class experience for our students.
I think it’s that shared mission that I bought into, and knowing that I could dedicate my passion to folks that are equally passionate about creating that environment — that’s what gets me excited.
