A Seat on the Simi Valley Unified Board of Trustees Was Handed to Dr. Stephen Pietrolungo. Now James Greenfield Is Asking Voters to Take It Back.
Three trustees, not voters, put Stephen Pietrolungo on the Simi Valley school board last summer. The Republican they passed over is running for the Area D seat on a platform that puts reading, math and campus police ahead of the district's next Bond Measure.
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SIMI VALLEY, Calif. — In July 2025, James Greenfield sat before the Simi Valley Unified school board and made his case for an empty seat. He talked about community engagement and about how the district might better promote what it offers to attract families, an approach that one account of the meeting described as "an outside perspective" (clair.id, July 30, 2025).
The board chose the inside one. By a vote of 3 to 1, trustees provisionally appointed Stephen Pietrolungo, a retired district principal known to generations of students as Dr. P, to fill the Trustee Area D vacancy left by Board President Kristina Pine's resignation (clair.id; Citizen Portal, meeting record). He and Superintendent Hani Youssef were longtime colleagues: Mr. Youssef joined the district's administration in 2015, rose to assistant superintendent and then, in 2022, to superintendent, making him Dr. Pietrolungo's boss for the final two years of the principal's career (Ventura County Star, Jan. 19, 2022; SVUSD, Trustee biography). Under California law, the appointment lasts only until the next regularly scheduled board election, when voters fill the seat for the remainder of the term (Cal. Educ. Code § 5091ee).
That election is Nov. 3, and Mr. Greenfield is on the ballot. His campaign is built on a proposition his platform states without hedging: "More money does not automatically mean better education," and "more technology, more programs, and more school bonds are not the answer if we aren't first getting the fundamentals right" (Elect Greenfield).
It is an argument with unusual timing. In the year since the board chose Dr. Pietrolungo over him, trustees have debated asking voters for a new school bond; the number of police officers assigned to the district's 28 campuses fell to zero; and the state's own test results from the schools Dr. Pietrolungo ran show most of his students below grade level in math. Mr. Greenfield's platform addresses each in turn. Area D voters will decide whether that is the job description they want.
Pietrolungo Talks 'Bang for Our Buck.' Greenfield Says Don't Ask Taxpayers Until the Basics Are Fixed.
Mr. Greenfield, a member of the Ventura County Republican Party Central Committee for the 4th Supervisorial District, which covers Simi Valley and Moorpark, has organized his platform around five headings: put students first, get back to the basics, make school safety a priority, spend taxpayer dollars wisely, and leadership that delivers results (Ventura County Republican Party; Elect Greenfield). The spending plank is the one most likely to be tested first.
On May 19, trustees debated whether to place a new facilities and technology bond on the November ballot, asked staff for more outreach and cost breakdowns, and took no vote (Citizen Portal, May 19, 2026 meeting). The county's list of 2026 measures includes no Simi Valley Unified bond (Ventura County Elections, 2026 Measures). The question remains open, and the next chance to decide it falls within the term Area D voters are now filling.
This is the decision Mr. Greenfield is asking to be part of. The district's "first responsibility should be making sure students can read, write, and perform mathematics at grade level," his platform says, and "academic achievement should not take a back seat to constantly expanding programs, technology, or spending" (Elect Greenfield). The sequence is the point: results first, then any request for money.
Dr. Pietrolungo has not opposed a bond. At his appointment interview, he told trustees, "If we pursue another bond, the public has to see a clear plan with real impact. We need to get the most bang for our buck," and urged the district to beautify its campuses, elevate its branding, and showcase student success to attract families (clair.id). The difference between the two men is not whether a bond should have a plan. It is whether the district should be asking at all before it fixes what Mr. Greenfield calls the fundamentals.
On Pietrolungo's Watch, Campus Police Coverage Fell to Zero and the District Talked Taxes Instead
Mr. Greenfield's platform states that school resource officers "can be an important part" of keeping campuses safe and that the community "deserves to know why funding for this proven safety resource isn't a higher priority" (Elect Greenfield). The past school year gave that question a specific meaning.
Simi Valley Unified's resource officers are Simi Valley police officers, employed by the city and funded through the police department rather than the district (Garden Grove Elementary School Safety Plan 2025-26; Ventura County Star, Oct. 1, 2020). For years there were two, responsible for about 16,000 students on 28 campuses (CLAIR Simi Valley). During 2025-26, Dr. Pietrolungo's first year on the board, the number fell to zero after one officer retired and the other went on maternity leave, "raising questions about campus safety coverage across the district's 28 schools," The Simi Valley Acorn reported (Simi Valley Acorn, June 13, 2026).
The response came from City Hall. On May 11, the City Council created a working group and appointed Councilmembers Joseph Ayala and Mike Judge to it. The school board named its members on June 9, as the school year ended: Board President Dawn Smollen and Dr. Pietrolungo, who cited his "firsthand knowledge of campus operations and safety needs." The police officers' association told the panel the existing structure was insufficient for more than 17,000 students; Mr. Judge said four officers would be "the optimum number"; and City Manager Samantha Argabrite said the city was seeking to recover its costs and that the district "has discussed a possible voter-approved increased sales tax measure to help fund school safety programs" (Simi Valley Acorn).
In a single spring, with its campuses uncovered, the district was party to discussions of two tax increases on Simi Valley residents and homeowners, one on property and one on sales (Citizen Portal, May 19, 2026 meeting; Simi Valley Acorn). Mr. Greenfield's platform treats the officers as a budget priority to be funded from existing dollars. Nothing in Dr. Pietrolungo's stated priorities at his appointment addressed campus police.
At Both Schools Pietrolungo Ran, Most Students Fell Short in Math Every Year the State Measured
"Reading and math proficiency have slipped too far," Mr. Greenfield's platform says (Elect Greenfield). The state's assessment records for the two schools his opponent ran give the claim a local reference point.
California administered its current standardized test, the California Assessment of Student Performance and Progress, for the first time in the spring of 2015, in what the available record indicates was Dr. Pietrolungo's final year as principal of Simi Valley High School: the district's biography lists the school as his post before Monte Vista (SVUSD, Trustee biography), and by November 2015 Dean May held the job (Ventura County Star, Nov. 18, 2015). Among Simi Valley High juniors tested that spring, 56 percent met or exceeded the state standard in English language arts and 31 percent did so in mathematics, against district figures of 62 and 32 percent and state figures of 56 and 29 (CDE CAASPP, Simi Valley High, grade 11, 2015; district; state). Two of every three juniors at the district's flagship comprehensive high school were below grade level in math, and 41 percent were in the lowest category, "Standard Not Met."
Nine years later, at Monte Vista, the independent-study school where Dr. Pietrolungo was principal through 2023-24 (Monte Vista School Safety Plan 2023-24), the official report card shows 39 percent of tested students meeting the English standard, against 48 percent districtwide and 47 statewide, and 19 percent meeting the math standard, against 35 for both. The prior year's figures, under the same principal, were 41 and 20 (Monte Vista SARC 2023-24). The same report shows that only 119 of 243 enrolled students, 49 percent, took the English exam, and 113 of 242 took the math exam, against a state requirement that schools test at least 95 percent (Monte Vista SARC 2023-24; CDE, California School Dashboard).
Alternative schools enroll students who have often struggled elsewhere, and their results are not directly comparable to a comprehensive high school's. But across both schools, nearly a decade apart, most of Dr. Pietrolungo's students were not proficient in math in every year for which the state published results. Mr. Greenfield's platform calls for a district "transparent, accountable, and worthy of" parents' trust (Elect Greenfield). The test results are the kind of number that argument is built to run on.
Pietrolungo Spent 46 Years Inside A Broken Education System in Simi Valley. Greenfield Wants to Hold It Accountable.
Mr. Greenfield's platform reaches beyond spending and scores. It says there should be "no place for sexually explicit or pornographic material in school libraries or curricula" and calls for policies protecting "our girls from boys competing with them in school sports" (Elect Greenfield). Those positions will be familiar to voters who follow national school board politics. The local contrast is more basic.
Dr. Pietrolungo, who spent 46 years in education and retired from the district in 2024, described to trustees a board that sets policy rather than manages day-to-day operations, promotes the district and leaves the running of it to staff (Simi Valley Acorn, June 8, 2024; clair.id). Mr. Greenfield describes a board that questions the administration on spending, on safety, and on results before it markets anything, under a heading he calls "leadership that delivers results" (Elect Greenfield).
Trustee Ron Resnick, who cast the lone vote against the appointment, made a version of Mr. Greenfield's argument at the time. Speaking in favor of another passed-over applicant, Don Brodt, he told his colleagues, "there's value in looking outside the system" (clair.id). Three of his colleagues disagreed. In November, the voters of Area D get to answer the same question, and this time the applicant from outside the system is on the ballot.
Three Trustees Chose Pietrolungo. Area D Voters Can Choose Differently.
Vote-by-mail ballots are available beginning Oct. 5. The registration deadline is Oct. 19. Early voting runs Oct. 24 through Nov. 2, and vote centers are open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Election Day, Nov. 3 (SVUSD, November 2026 Election Information). Area D includes Berylwood, Garden Grove, Sycamore and Vista elementary schools, Santa Susana and Apollo high schools, the Simi Institute of Careers and Education, and Justin Early Learners Academy (SVUSD Board Application packet).
The Simi Valley Ledger has requested comment from both campaigns regarding the school bond options, the 2025-26 lapse in school resource officer coverage, and the Simi Valley High School and Monte Vista School test results. This article will be updated with any responses.
Editor's note: Proficiency figures are drawn from the California Department of Education's published CAASPP results and Simi Valley Unified's official School Accountability Report Cards, linked above. "Met or exceeded standard" is the state's designation for grade-level performance. Dr. Pietrolungo's tenure at Monte Vista is documented in the school's 2023-24 Comprehensive School Safety Plan; the 2023-24 report card, published in 2025, lists his successor. School board offices in California are nonpartisan; Mr. Greenfield's party affiliation is drawn from the public committee roster cited above
The Simi Valley Ledger is an Official Publication of The Freedom Project © 2026
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