Aileen Ong has spent 20 years helping organizations like Google and PayPal communicate clearly and reach the right audiences. This spring, she saw the Walnut Creek School District (WCSD)'s own communication problem up close, and organized hundreds of families to demand better. Now she's running for WCSD Governing Board to fix it district-wide.
Parents find out about big decisions after they're made. Questions get asked and go unanswered. Budgets get approved with no plain-language explanation of where the money goes.
This isn't about one bad decision. It's a pattern, and it touches everything from how principals get chosen to how tax dollars get spent.
Aileen is running to fix it. Not with more meetings. With real, two-way communication: families heard before decisions are made, and clear answers when they're not.
Aileen Ong has spent 20+ years building trust for organizations like Google and PayPal, and the last several years doing the same for Walnut Creek schools as a PTA leader who's organized hundreds of parents around one goal: a real say in decisions that affect their kids.
She holds a B.A. from UC Berkeley and an MBA from UCLA. Her career has taught her to listen, build consensus, and make hard decisions easy to understand — exactly what WCSD's board needs now.
Aileen lives in Walnut Creek with her husband and two daughters. She's served as PTA secretary, room parent, classroom volunteer, crossing guard, and Girl Scout leader, and her family stays active across the community, from sports to the arts.
She's not a career politician. She's a mom in this district today, and she'll feel the impact of every vote she casts. That's not a lack of experience. It's the accountability WCSD needs on its board.
"I didn't set out to run for school board. I set out to get a straight answer. When I couldn't get one, I realized this district needed someone who knows how to fix that."
Walnut Creek schools are strong. Our board can be stronger.
This spring, Tice Creek got a new principal. No community panel. No parent input. No input from WCSD's own incoming superintendent. Aileen doesn't see that as a one-off. She sees a pattern the board needs to break.
Aileen has watched it up close. Years as a WCSD parent. Volunteering in classrooms. Leading in the PTA. Watching her kids grow up in these schools. That's what convinced her: this district needs a board member who shows up before decisions get made, not after.
Visit every school before deciding. Listen first. That's not a slogan. It's how Aileen would govern.
Aileen lives with every vote this board casts, just like you do. She showed up, spoke up, and brought hundreds of neighbors with her. That's the leader she's tried to be in every part of her life, and the leader this board needs.
Read the full story behind Tice Creek & Measure L →Three words. One standard for every decision on the board.
Families first, staff report second. Aileen shows up to every campus before she casts a vote.
Real process. Real transparency. Decisions made in the open, not behind closed doors.
Every taxpayer deserves a straight answer on where the money goes, kids in the district or not.
Decisions land hardest on the people closest to them. Aileen talks to families and staff in person, on campus, before she votes — not secondhand through a memo.
Big decisions need a real process: open, transparent, with real community input before the vote, not after it's already decided.
Trust isn't just a parent issue. It's a whole-community issue, especially for taxpayers without kids currently enrolled.
Aileen is currently in the endorsement process with several community and party organizations. This section will update as endorsements are confirmed — check back soon.
New events are added as they're scheduled. Sign up to volunteer below and you'll be the first to know.
Events coming soon — check back here or follow the campaign for updates.
No. WCSD Governing Board is a nonpartisan office. Aileen's values guide her, but every WCSD family's vote matters, regardless of party.
Tice Creek lost two principals in two years. When the school's beloved principal announced his departure this spring, more than 200 parents signed a petition within 48 hours asking the district to retain him. Families packed a board meeting to demand answers. The board refused to answer. Parents wrote to local papers asking for transparency. Weeks later, the board appointed a new principal anyway — without a community panel, without talking to families, and without input from WCSD's own incoming superintendent.
Aileen organized the petition, spoke at the board meetings, and led the media outreach. And the more she talked to parents across the district, the clearer the pattern became: other schools have faced the same kind of rushed, closed-door decisions. Tice Creek wasn't an isolated case. It was a warning sign.
She's not waiting for the district to start listening. She's running to make sure it has to.
Measure L, a parcel tax supporting district programs, needed a two-thirds supermajority to pass. It got about 64% support — a clear majority of voters — but fell short of the threshold. Aileen sees that as a trust gap, not a funding problem. Nearly two out of three voters said yes. The board hasn't yet earned the deeper trust it needs to clear that higher bar, and rebuilding it, especially with taxpayers who don't have kids in the district, is part of why she's running.
Volunteer your time, chip in what you can, or just show up. Every bit helps. See the Get Involved and Donate sections below.
Twenty years in communications strategy meant Aileen knew how to get this story told. She worked directly with a Patch reporter to bring the story to light, then wrote and placed two letters to the editor herself, rallying fellow parents to add their names.
Aileen worked directly with the reporter to bring this story to light, covering the 200+ signature petition and families organizing ahead of a board meeting.
May 4, 2026 News24-680Aileen wrote this letter to the editor and rallied fellow Tice Creek parents to sign on.
May 9, 2026 News24-680A follow-up letter Aileen wrote, connecting the principal appointment to Measure L's failure.
June 3, 2026Whether you have thirty minutes to text your neighbors or a Saturday to knock on doors, there's a place for you on this team. No experience needed — we'll train you.
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Paid for by Aileen Ong for Walnut Creek School District Governing Board 2026. Contributions are not tax deductible. FPPC# [insert Committee ID from Form 410 once assigned].
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