HomeThree to Lead Parcel Tax Renewal Bid

Three to Lead Parcel Tax Renewal Bid

It’s just a little over two months before the issue comes before voters and recently, three San Marino residents stepped forward to lead the campaign to renew Measure E, the parcel tax that provides more than $4 million annually to the San Marino Unified School District.
Jennifer Kurumada Chuang, Chris Maling and Alan Chen have already plunged headlong into the effort to educate voters on the tax, which was first supported by voters residing in San Marino as well as the boundaries of SMUSD in 2009.
An early childhood educator, Chuang is the owner and director of a private preschool and child-care center and has worked as a lecturer in the master’s program at Cal State Los Angeles. Previously, she was a five-star provider of Los Angeles Universal Preschool and worked on local and state advocacy for funding in early childhood.
Locally, Chuang has served as Carver Elementary School PTA president, Huntington Middle School PTA president and PTA Council president, in addition to various other executive board positions. Chuang was a member of the committee that evaluated the San Marino Recreation Department and the preschool at Stoneman. She has also spent six years as a San Marino Schools Foundation trustee, two years as the administrative vice president and three years as the Grants Committee chair — which she created — and for which she established the working rules and policies of the grants and endowments programs at the Schools Foundation.
In January, Chuang will take over as the chair of the Pasadena Child Health Foundation, for which she has spent five years on the advisory board.
Her husband, Alan, is a portfolio manager for his own wealth advisory firm in Pasadena called TwoTalents Capital Management. They have two children; Ella is a freshman at University of Washington in Seattle and Alex is a junior at SMHS.
An attorney by trade, Alan Chen’s practice areas include intellectual property (patent, copyright and trademark) prosecution, maintenance and enforcement, as well as international commercial litigation. Chen served as the president of the Chinese Club of San Marino in 2018 and is president of the Taiwanese American Lawyers Association. He is also a board member and general counsel to the Chinese Chamber of Commerce, Los Angeles.
He and his wife, Yvonne Cheng, have two daughters; Naomi is a freshman at San Marino High School and Fiona is a 7th-grader at Huntington Middle School.
Yvonne Cheng has been an integral part of the schools’ PTAs since they became a part of the Carver and Huntington Middle School families. She was the 2016 Golden Nugget recipient for Carver and 2018 Founder’s Day Award recipient. She co-chaired the K. L. Carver Enrichment Fund for many years and has a long history of working to help the community raise funds for the schools.
Chen said his core focus in community service has always been about community-building and collaboration.
A principal at Avison Young, investment real estate advisers, Chris Maling has spent six years as a trustee for the San Marino Schools Foundation, serving as its president from 2018-19. Maling also spent a year on the Facilities Advisory Committee for the San Marino Unified School District.
Maling is married to Blythe Maling, the senior vice president and chief development officer of Wayfinder Family Services in Los Angeles. The couple has two daughters; McKenzie, an 8th-grader at Huntington Middle School and Sloane, a 6th-grader at HMS. Blythe is active in National Charity League.
Measure E will be decided at a special mail-in election on Tuesday, March 2. If approved, the cost of the parcel tax — which stands at $968 per parcel — will not increase. Measure E funds 35.6 FTE (full-time equivalent) teaching positions. Exemptions are available for senior citizens ages 65 and older.

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