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Bloody Battle in Sequoia Union High School District
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Sequoia Union High School District Board of Trustees
One of the hottest races on the Peninsula this election season is for two seats on the Sequoia Union High School District (SUHSD) Board of Trustees. A veritable scrum has erupted with the retirement of veteran board members Sally Stewart and Gordon Lewin attracting eight candidates into the race.
Beyond the lack of incumbents running for reelection, the Sequoia District has also been a battleground over the chartering and siting of the Everest Charter School, a proposed sister Charter High School to the popular Summit Preparatory Charter School.
The Sequoia District’s board fought the Charter application, forcing the Charter sponsors to take their case all the way to the State Board of Education which finally upheld the Charter. But that did not end the controversy as the District Board and administration did not, from the perspective of the Charter advocates, offer adequate facilities to the new school which the District must provide under the peculiar body of law detailing the relationship between traditional school districts and their charter offspring.
The Sequoia Board offered options in East Palo Alto and Redwood City, much to the dismay of Charter advocates. In fact, the district has just filed a lawsuit against the charter organization claiming that Everest improperly included claims for damages and attorneys' fees in its lawsuit against the district among other complaints. The district itself is filing the lawsuit as a means to force a public discourse on the validity and need for charter schools. Many in the district, particularly the more established school community and institutions such as the local teachers union oppose charter schools as the State-imposed requirements force districts to allocate per-student funding for those attending the charter schools outside of the district’s direct control, and thereby further spreading few public dollars over a larger pool of facilities and school administrations.
Into this heady mix, eight candidates for the Sequoia Union High School District Board have stepped.
Two of the candidates, Bob Ferrando, 58, and Chris Thomsen, 54, each have a child attending Summit Preparatory Charter High School, which is backed by the same group that founded Everest. In fact Chris Thomsen’s wife, Carol Thomsen, is a member of the Summit Preparatory Charter High School Executive Board of Directors – a position which may have to end should husband Chris Thomsen win a seat on the district board.
Throwing a wrinkle into the mix is Jacqueline Wallace Greene, a former two term Ravenswood School District Trustee who lost her reelection bid for a third term in 2008.
Wallace Greene is supported by the District’s teachers’ and school employee unions, suggesting that she does not support the Everest Charter School effort. Greene’s challenge is that she is running from a segment of the district with a relatively small population. And Greene will likely have to defend the current state of the school district she once helped to govern in Ravenswood which continues to struggle under federally-imposed improvement mandates.
The two confirmed anti charter candidates are former San Mateo County Civil Grand Jury foreperson Virginia Chang Kiraly and Alan Sarver, a retired software engineer and very active parent in the district. Sarver has also been endorsed by the San Mateo County Central Labor Council and the county’s Democratic Party. Sarver’s support base is among the broadest of any of the candidates. Kiraly, by running in tandem with Sarver, may benefit from the substantial support behind Sarver.
Both Kiraly and Sarver have the support of most or all of the SUHSD board and most of the school board members in the many feeder districts that support the SUHSD. Sarver and Kiraly will be the pair to beat in this election.
Another interesting entrant into the race is perennial candidate Noria Zasslow. Who knows where Zasslow, an education activist for special needs services, has run for just about every school board in southern San Mateo County in the past decade including a race against Memo Morantes in 2008 for the San Mateo County Board of Education; a race for the Menlo Park City School District in 2006; a race for the Sequoia Union High School District Board in 2005; a race against Memo Morantes for the San Mateo County Board of Education in 2004; and finally a race for the Menlo Park city School District in 2002.
Maybe for Zasslow a sixth run will be the charm.
Then there are the two unknowns including Beth "Ms Inja" Injasoulian, a former math teacher and Board member of the failed aurora High Charter School in Redwood City – she resigned from that position in 2000. Aurora closed its doors in 2004 after nearly five years of struggling to get off the ground.
“Ms. Inja” must also compete with Nohema Fernandez, a former UC professor with little history in the political mix in southern San Mateo County.
The pro-Charter candidates certainly have a shot in this race as they represent a motivated voting block but if the relatively small number of parents involved fail to mobilize district-wide count on Kiraly and Sarver to take seats on the board.
Author's Note -- CHAN ENDORSEMENTS DROPPING LIKE FLIES
Due to the numerous comments received on the Foul Politics taint Broadmoor column from August 17, I reviewed Hanley Chan's current website for Broadmoor Police Commission and noticed that the endorsements from two high profile State Legislators have been removed from his webpage.
They are:
- State Senator Mark Leno: senator.leno@senate.ca.gov
- State Assemblymember Jerry Hill: Assemblymember.Hill@assembly.ca.gov
Readers maybe you can ask these legislators to ask them why they have removed their endorsements. If you receive a response, please forward them to me and I will post them on my column and blog, so that other readers can learn why their endorsement have been removed.
Contact Bruce Balshone at bruce.examiner@gmail.com
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