Kevin Saavedra, a two-term trustee on the Tamalpais Union High School District board in southern Marin County, has resigned, according to a resignation letter dated Friday, Oct. 9, EdSource reported Sunday. The resignation came one day after a Marin County Superior Court judge granted a civil harassment restraining order against him at the request of a district parent.
Saavedra's name will still appear on the Nov. 3 ballot. He is one of seven candidates competing for three seats on the board, and he told the Redwood Bark, the Redwood High School student newspaper, that he "would not bet" on accepting a seat if voters reelect him, EdSource reported.
The restraining order
Judge Mark A. Talamantes granted the three-year order on Oct. 8, according to EdSource and the court's online docket as cited by Mill Valley Briefing (case CV0011301). The case centered on an email Saavedra sent last year from his official district account telling parent Ina Gotlieb to "go f— yourself you stupid old crone."
At the hearing, the judge questioned why Saavedra had used district email to write to the parent of a Tam student. "You're humiliating a parent whose child goes to your school? I don't want a parent to be publicly shamed," Talamantes said, according to EdSource, and he called the conduct an "abuse of power."
Saavedra said he was responding to a critical email Gotlieb had sent to board President Cynthia Roenisch about how the board handled public comment on consolidating two alternative schools. Gotlieb later apologized for that email, EdSource reported. EdSource also said records it obtained show a 2024 message in which Saavedra accused a district employee of "chicken—- behavior" for leaving him off an email, and that he received more than $25,000 in pay and benefits as a board member in 2024.
What he said in his letter
In his brief letter, Saavedra described the trustee job as a volunteer position and said the recent cycle had been "tumultuous." He wrote that he had not expected to "withstand personal and sometimes racist attacks," adding, "The abuse has been draining and I have had enough." He did not return messages from EdSource on Sunday, and he had not responded to Mill Valley Briefing's request for comment as of its Oct. 9 update.
Censure vote and the board race
Roenisch had brought a motion to censure Saavedra, and a draft resolution citing the restraining order was set for the board's Tuesday, Oct. 13 meeting, which starts at 6 p.m. in Larkspur, Mill Valley Briefing reported. EdSource said it was not immediately clear whether that vote will go forward now that he has resigned.
The district serves about 4,200 students at Tamalpais, Redwood and Archie Williams high schools plus its alternative schools. The seven candidates on the ballot, in filing order, are Brian Sutherland, Cynthia Roenisch, Maria Sandoval, Leslie Harlander, Kevin Saavedra, Valerie Wynn and Joy Koo, according to Mill Valley Briefing's candidate questionnaire. Several challengers have made rebuilding trust between the board and the community a central theme of their campaigns.
For more local races and measures, see our Nov. 3, 2026 Bay Area election guide.