In memoriam: Juanita Haugen

Juanita Sakajian Haugen, a local school board member in Pleasanton for nearly three decades and a past president of CSBA, died March 5 of lung cancer. She was 69.

Mrs. Haugen, who was born in San Francisco and graduated from the University of Southern California with a degree in sociology, was a former probation officer in Los Angeles County. After moving to Pleasanton in 1970, with her husband, Gilbert, Mrs. Haugen volunteered extensively in local schools and community organizations. She was elected to the Amador Valley Joint Union High School District school board in 1979. In 1988, she won a seat on the first board of education in the then-newly created Pleasanton Unified School District. She was president of the Pleasanton board at the time of her death.

Mrs. Haugen was a member of CSBA’s Delegate Assembly from 1981 to 1989 and represented Contra Costa and Alameda counties on the association’s Board of Directors from 1989 to 1994, when she became an officer. After serving as CSBA president in 1996-97, she represented the nine Pacific Region states on the National School Boards Association Board of Directors for eight years. She also served on more than a dozen of CSBA committees and task forces that tackled a wide range of subjects, from the special challenges facing small school districts to association budgets and positions on state and federal legislation. “Juanita brought talent, energy, enthusiasm and an enormous love for children to her work as a local school trustee, to her service as president of this association and to her post as a regional director for the National School Boards Association,” said CSBA Executive Director Scott P. Plotkin. “In addition, she possessed the quality of humility—something that’s rare in a person who had accomplished what she had. She never forgot that her work was first and foremost about improving opportunities for children. We, and the children of California, have lost a good and dedicated friend.”

Gov. Pete Wilson appointed Mrs. Haugen to the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing and to the Education Commission of the States in 1996. A strong believer in the importance of collaboration, Mrs. Haugen was a founding member and the first president of the Cities, Counties and Schools Partnership in 1997-98. She was president of the California Elected Women’s Association for Education and Research in 2006.

When Mrs. Haugen left the CSBA Board of Directors in the spring of 2006, colleagues, friends and admirers gathered in Sacramento from around the state for a special dinner hosted by the association to recognize her many accomplishments and decades of service.

Earlier this year, her colleagues on the Pleasanton school board created the Juanita Haugen Civic Engagement Award to honor students for outstanding service and community involvement.

Haugen is survived by her four daughters—all of them educators.