The School Board’s purpose is to promote and to support Catholic education in Assumption’s Parish. While adhering to Diocesan policies and guidelines, the Board seeks to fulfill its mission of bringing wisdom, talent, experience, faith life, and good will into the process of providing quality education for all the children served by Assumption School.
Assumption’s School Board consists of committees led by Board Members. Each committee has goals, established by the Board, at the start of the school year (August). These goals make up Assumption School’s Strategic Plan. Each committee sets objectives under each goal and reports on the progress of these objectives during the monthly School Board meetings.
We hope that you, as a school parent, will consider helping us as a future Board member or subcommittee member. Please feel free to contact any of us if you are interested in sharing your skills—like you, we are listed in the Assumption School Directory.
Following is a description of each School Board member for the current academic year:
Giovanna Giuliani
President
Term Ends: 2013
Giovanna joined the School Board in 2010 and is a member of the Mission Effectiveness Committee. Giovanna was born in Florida and lived in/near Philadelphia, New York City and Boston until she moved to sunny California in 2002 to attend graduate school. She is married to Paul Carney, a Bay Area native, and has three children, Francesca (1st grade) and twin boys, Gabriel and Sean (future Assumption students!). She went to college on the east coast and has an MBA and MPH (Masters in Public Health) from UC Berkeley. Giovanna works in San Francisco for a non-profit that provides assistance and training to medical groups in California to improve the care and service they provide to patients.
Bettina Sanchez
Vice-President
Term Ends: 2013
Bettina is a new board member this year and is a member of the Finance Committee. She was born and raised in Germany but has been living in the Bay Area for the past 10 years. She holds an undergraduate degree in business from the Berufsakademie in Stuttgart, Germany and an MBA from the University of Utah. Her background is Financial Planning and Internal Audit. After having spent 7 years with Deloitte & Touche in their ERS practice, she has been working at Otis Spunkmeyer, Inc. here in San Leandro for the past 2 years and just recently took on the role of their Director of Risk Management.
Patti Larsen
Secretary
Term Ends: 2012
Patti was born the fourth of five kids and raised in Omaha, Nebraska. Her family then moved to San Jose when she was a teenager and she graduated from Presentation High School, completing 13 years of Catholic education. Patti is consistently grateful for the power and strength she earned through four years at an all-girls Catholic high school.
Patti is an SJSU graduate with a B.S. in Photojournalism and worked for newspapers in the South Bay before making the transition to software design in various Silicon Valley startups. Patti and Sam joined Assumption in 2002 and they have two sons; Shea in third grade and Jack in kindergarten. Sam is fourth-generation to be running his family’s lumber business in San Leandro while Patti is home part-time, and working part-time as a software user interface designer.
Ben Barr
Member, Catholic Identity Committee
Term Ends: 2014
Born and raised in Redding, CA, Ben Barr and his family moved to San Leandro in the fall of 2001. Ben is the owner of B2 Consulting ("B-Squared Consulting"), an IT company that specializes in small firms. He is also one of the cantors at Assumption church. Ben is married to Maria and they have three children.
Robert Caruso
Chair: Plant & Facilities Committee
Term Ends: 2013
Robert V. Caruso is the head of the Assumption Facilities Committee. Robert was born in Berkeley, California and attended St. Peter Martyr School in Pittsburg, California (Dominican sister school to Assumption) and Pittsburg High School. Robert has a B.A. in business from San Francisco State University and an MBA from the University of California, Berkeley Haas School of Business. Robert has developed real estate projects in the Bay Area as well as managing various commercial residential and commercial properties.
Patricia M. Castro
Member, Marketing & Development Committee
Term Ends: 2013
Patricia, an Assumption School alumnus (Go Trojans!) is a new member this year. She was raised in San Leandro, attended San Leandro High and has a B.A. Degree in Social Science from Holy Names University in Oakland. Her daughter Katherine is in the third grade. Patricia is the Interim Director of the Alameda County Workforce Investment Board – a private sector lead policy board whose mission is to use public resources to mitigate the impacts of unemployment while working strategically with business, industry, and local economic development agencies. Linking the “world of work” to education and career development are both key interests of hers.
Nancy Goodrich-King
Member: Marketing & Development Committee
Term Ends: 2012
Nancy Goodrich-King serves on the Plant & Facilities committee. She grew up in Hayward, graduated from Hayward High School, received an A.A. degree from Chabot College and a B.S. degree in Business from Cal State East Bay. She has been an active member of Teamsters Local 70 since 1980, where she has served on political action and election committees. She worked for United Parcel Service for 25 years and currently drives a tractor trailer for Horizon Lines at the Port of Oakland. Nancy also chairs the 50/50 raffle committee for the Assumption Auction. Her son, Kyle, is in the 6th grade.
Matt Loeshe
Member: Marketing & Development
Term Ends: 2014
Steve McCue
Member: Plant & Facilities Committee
Term Ends: 2013
Steven is beginning the second term on the school board and is this year’s Finance Committee Chair. Steven is the Chief Information Officer at Keker & Van Nest LLP. He has over 20 years of experience in information technology, 15 of which have been in management focused on the use of technology in law firms. He has managed various information technology projects related to utilizing technology to achieve the business goals of law firms. Those projects have included relocation, business process automation, knowledge management, client collaboration and finance.
Maurice Quiroz
Member: Marketing & Development Committee
Term Ends: 2014
Leila Towne
Chair: Marketing & Development Committee
Term Ends: 2012
Leila Towne is School Board President this year and a member of the Marketing Committee. Leila was born in San Francisco and attended St. Paul's in Noe Valley prior to becoming a student at Assumption and Bishop O'Dowd High School. She has an A.B. in English and German from U.C. Berkeley and received her M.A. in English from The Claremont Graduate School at the Claremont Colleges. Leila is an executive coach for executives at Fortune 500 companies and Silicon Valley start ups.



School Board

