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Community Member Testimonials

I met Michelle O’Brien in 2022 when we worked together on a school board candidate’s reelection campaign. Later, we talked after she spoke at a Saddleback Valley Unified School District (SVUSD) Board meeting. During her speech, Michelle requested the Board resume airing school board meetings and making recordings available for parents and
the public to watch at their convenience.


Soon after, Michelle joined my group, Parents Against School Shootings (P.A.S.S.), and has been an active member ever since. She regularly speaks at the SVUSD Board meetings on important topics such as school safety, implementing a Parent Bill of Rights, and board meeting transparency. Michelle highlights the lack of District and
Board accountability and asks for public input, including a need for a translator for non-English speaking parents/guardians and students during SVUSD Board meetings.


Michelle is a local mom, grandmother, and a taxpayer. It is extremely important to her
that students, teachers, and staff remain safe at school. With an increasing number of school shootings in the U.S., Michelle says she often hears parents being afraid of dropping their kids off at SVUSD schools, so she strives to find and implement preventative solutions to avoid school violence and shootings. Michelle’s background of researching and approving the most qualified vendors, contractors, and consultants at the best price, saving taxpayer dollars, means more money for education programs. Michelle’s interaction with parents/guardians, the public, and colleagues has always been with respect and integrity. She listens to our concerns and advocates on our behalf.


I endorse Michelle’s candidacy for SVUSD Board Trustee Area 3.

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Sincerely,

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Yevgenya Koch
Founder and President, Parents Against School Shootings

 

​www.passforlife.org

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I have known Michelle O’Brien for approximately 30 years. While living in Lake Forest, her oldest daughter and I became best friends. I spent a great deal of time at the O’Brien home where I became family.


Michelle is welcoming, kind, and supportive. She’s also firm, intelligent, and not afraid to face challenges head on. Before retiring in 2022, Michelle worked very hard to provide for her family, purchasing their forever home in Mission Viejo. She’s the first person to volunteer and help others.


As a mother of two school age children, I hear passion in her voice when she talks about protecting children and parent’s rights. When Michelle was the vice-chair for Moms for Liberty, Orange County, Michelle co-hosted training for parents, grandparents, aunts, and uncles on how to run for school board. For months she collected signatures for the School Choice initiative and loves reading family friendly, patriot books to children.


I know Michelle is dependable, honest, and responsible. I’m sure she will be an asset to the Saddleback Valley Unified School Board representing Trustee Area 3.


Sincerely,
Sarah

SVUSD Parent

I was honored when Michelle O’Brien, a loving Parent of former SVUSD students, who is also a taxpayer, asked me for my support in this document. A little about her as I have known her for about 3 years
now. She is an extremely HONEST and RESPONSIBLE person, who wants to make sure that Parents are in control over their children’s education in our public schools, just as they deserve to be as taxpayers and SOLID citizens of our community.


She is very much a person who would rather “under promise” and “over deliver” to her constituents. Her level of energy and enthusiasm will bring the right kind of much needed new ideas in her area of
SVUSD and to the school board as a whole. Her passion for our children getting the highest quality education possible in such subjects as reading, writing and arithmetic is extremely visible as demonstrated by her involvement in many community children’s events. She was the former Vice Chair of the local chapter of Moms For Liberty. In this role she was an integral part of putting on a recent “School Board Bootcamp” program for current and future school board members. Her dedication to the truth is commendable! She wants only the best for the children in our schools and transparency in all school district matters.


She earns her support of her constituents and is not “beholden to any special interest groups.” Your support of Michelle O’Brien to be a much-needed fresh face on the SVUSD will be greatly appreciated.

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Greg Kunath
Former SVUSD Board Member

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