Vaishali Sirkay: Supporting student mental health and wellbeing

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Vaishali “Shali” Sirkay

Incumbent | shalisirkay.com

Top priorities

Closing the “opportunity gap” for underserved students
Fostering an inclusive environment to nurture student mental health
Maintaining high compensation and support for teachers and staff

Public service

Los Altos School District Board of Trustees (2018-present)
California School Boards Association, Region 20 Delegate (2025-present)
Santa Clara County School Boards Association, President (2025-2026)
Santa Clara County Juvenile Justice Commission (2019-2026)

Community involvement

Asian Pacific Islander School Board Members Association
Mountain View Los Altos Community Foundation
Almond Elementary School PTA
Los Altos Mountain View PTA Council

Since Vaishali “Shali” Sirkay first joined the Los Altos school board in 2018, she said she’s prioritized advocating for “the whole child.” She’s now looking to serve another four years, hoping to support every student where they are and with their individual needs.

In an interview, Sirkay described her work as being at “the intersection of public education and public health,” and said she is guided by her background in public health and cultural anthropology. She has degrees in both areas, and previously worked in nonprofit public health communications.

While on LASD’s board, Sirkay recently served as president for the Santa Clara County School Boards Association, and she’s currently the county’s delegate on the California School Boards Association.

Learn more about this race

Candidate Comparison Grids: Los Altos School District Board of Trustees

To help voters compare and differentiate between the people running for the Los Altos School District Board of Trustees, the Voice sent a questionnaire to all the candidates, asking about their policy positions and priorities across a wide range of issues. Check out their side-by-side responses.

View the comparison grid ➔

“There’s more that I have to give to the school district,” Sirkay told the Voice. “My perspective as a trustee over the last eight years has also been broadened by the leadership positions I took on.”

Sirkay is one of four candidates running for three seats on the Los Altos School District Board of Trustees, which governs seven elementary and two middle schools throughout Los Altos, Los Altos Hills and Mountain View. Her daughter graduated from the district, having attended Almond Elementary School and Egan Junior High School.

Student mental health and well-being have long been priorities for Sirkay, who said she wants to build an “institutional culture of care” where all children feel welcomed. She’s also interested in potentially expanding on-campus mental health resources.

“We talk a lot about putting resources for mental health and wellness in the high schools, but these issues start much earlier,” Sirkay said. “Can we focus on really young children’s mental health, and how do we support that?”

Read about the other candidates

While serving as LASD’s board president in 2021, a position the trustees rotate through, Sirkay helped navigate the district’s reopening after pandemic school closures. To her, it was important to balance the safety of students and teachers during COVID-19, with ensuring campuses were available for students without stable homes or who otherwise might benefit from being at school.

She brought these priorities to the county’s school board association, inviting various experts to give presentations to the board on a range of topics, from early childhood mental health to suicide prevention to juvenile justice.

When it comes to teacher and staff pay, Sirkay noted that it has gone up over the time she’s been on the board. Los Altos teachers currently earn between roughly $84,000 and $155,000, depending on education and experience. Sirkay added that she hopes to maintain a high level of compensation while being fiscally responsible.

She stood by the board’s recent decision to release its stake in 18 apartments at an employee housing complex in Palo Alto that had been reserved for Los Altos School District teachers and staff. All but six of the district’s 24 apartments were sitting vacant. The decision meant that LASD got back $900,000 of its investment in the project.

A perennial topic of local controversy has been the relationship between the school district and Bullis Charter School. Since the charter school’s founding more than two decades ago, interactions between the two entities have been tumultuous, sometimes involving legal battles over campus space allocations.

Most recently, the district and charter school have been at odds over the district’s plans to move Bullis to a new campus that is under construction in the San Antonio area. Sirkay said she supports the move, which charter school officials have opposed.

Although negotiations over the new campus are ongoing, Sirkay said the district’s overall relationship with the charter school has been moving “in a positive direction.”

“I want to look forward and not keep litigating the past,” she said.

Check out the Voice’s 2026 Voter Guide, which includes in-depth coverage of this and other local races and ballot measures.