Candidate Forum 2026: DJUSD Areas 1 & 4

Colleen Zern is a West Davis mom, attorney, educator, and longtime community volunteer. She and her husband are raising three boys who attend three Davis schools, and she had been actively involved in their school communities through PTA leadership, site council, and classroom volunteering. Colleen has also spent many seasons volunteering as a coach for youth baseball and basketball teams in Davis.

Professionally, Colleen has practiced law for more than a decade and is a Continuing Lecturer at UC Davis, where she teaches undergraduate business courses. Both roles have shaped how she approaches difficult questions: do the homework, look carefully at the facts, ask hard questions, listen to different perspectives, and work collaboratively toward practical solutions.

Colleen believes that strong schools are built through transparent, data-driven decision-making, accountability, and collaboration. She believes the School Board and District should use reliable data to understand challenges, evaluate options, and measure whether their decisions are actually improving outcomes for students. She also believes that teachers, staff, families, and community members should have meaningful opportunities to provide input before important decisions are made.

Colleen is committed to ensuring that every student feels that they belong in DJUSD and has the support and opportunities they need to succeed. Above all, she believes our schools should never stop working to improve the educational experience for every student.

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My name is Dorte Jensen. I am a longtime Davis resident, a graduate of DJUSD schools, and a graduate of Yale University. I am running to be your School Board Trustee because I believe the current Board has not always been transparent in its decision-making and has too often failed to earn the trust of students, families, and our community.

This year, faced with declining enrollment and reduced state funding, the Board proposed closing Patwin and Birch Lane Elementary Schools. After months of overwhelming concern from parents, students, and community members, the Board postponed further discussion until next year, leaving many families feeling unheard and uncertain about the future.

I believe our community deserves answers. Why were school closures presented before other options had been fully explored? How can the Board ensure a more transparent and collaborative process in the future?

As your Trustee, my highest priority will be preserving our neighborhood schools whenever possible. I will advocate for transparent decision-making, meaningful community engagement, and responsible long-term planning so families are never again blindsided by proposals that fundamentally affect their children’s education. Together, we can strengthen trust, protect our neighborhood schools, and ensure every decision puts students first.

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I am running for re-election because I believe the role of a trustee is to bring our community together around our shared responsibility to educate every child, steward public resources responsibly, and ensure every student thrives.
As your current trustee, I focus on every student having the opportunity to learn and succeed. I spearheaded our “Away for the Day” mobile device policy to support distraction-free classrooms, championed stronger compensation for classified support staff, and helped develop a strategic plan that prepares our district for the challenges ahead.

Our district faces difficult decisions—declining enrollment, financial uncertainty, and the possibility of school closures. These challenges require an experienced, thoughtful leader who listens to our community, brings people together, and keeps students at the center of every decision.

If re-elected, I will continue advocating for neighborhood schools, attracting and retaining outstanding teachers and staff, guaranteeing student mental health access and family support, and strengthening career technical education and dual enrollment opportunities. I believe strong public schools are built through partnership, transparency, and trust.

Davis always invests in its children and public schools. I will continue to work with you to ensure every student feels safe, heard, connected, and prepared for their future.

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Beth Bourne is a concerned mom and advocate for parental rights, women’s sports, and free speech in Davis, California. Beth has filed dozens of FOIA/Public Records Requests with the public schools, local government agencies, UC Davis, and the California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) around gender identity policies, activities, and taxpayer funds.

Beth has a bachelor’s degree from Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo in City and Regional Planning and master’s degree in Community Development from UC Davis. While in college, she competed in cross-country and track at Cal Poly and bike racing and Nordic skiing at UC Davis.

Beth worked as a transportation planner for the County of San Luis Obispo and as a city planner for the City of Davis and the City of Palo Alto before having her second child and returning to Davis. For several years, she was a stay-at-home mom and volunteered at both Davis Parent Nursery School and Birch Lane Elementary School, and served on the Birch Lane Montessori PTA board.

In recent years, Beth has been involved with several legal matters around gender ideology. In 2023, Alliance Defending Freedom successfully represented Beth as the Moms for Liberty-Yolo County chapter chair and other speakers in a lawsuit against the county for violating their right to free speech when the librarian shut down their “Protect Girls Sports” forum at the Davis library. In a viral piece for Reality’s Last Stand, Beth famously went undercover as “non-binary” patient at Kaiser Permanente, revealing how easy it is to obtain hormones and sex-rejecting surgeries at almost no cost. In July 2025, Beth provided testimony at the Federal Trade Commission’s workshop on the dangers of “gender affirming care” for minors and shared specific examples of fraudulent information and coercive practices by doctors at Kaiser Permanente Davis.

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