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Publication Date: Friday, July 19, 2002 As election season begins, school board president decides against reelection
As election season begins, school board president decides against reelection
(July 19, 2002)
@12subhead:High School trustee declines reelection bid, too
By Candice Shih
The election season for two Mountain View school districts began this week with the news that two incumbents will not seek reelection.
In November the Mountain View-Whisman School District will see a major change in its makeup, with the possibility that three of the five seats will change hands.
The Mountain View-Los Altos High School District also has three open seats, but so far just three candidates (including two incumbents) have expressed interest in running.
Mountain View-Whisman School District
The recent resignation of Trustee Juan Aranda and Board President Russ Wood's decision not to seek reelection mean significant changes for the Mountain View board as it enters it first election since the Mountain View and Whisman school districts merged in 2000.
The district will have open two four-year seats and one two-year seat, which is the remainder of Aranda's term.
Elaine Spence, Gloria Higgins and Ellen Wheeler have all begun the process of filing for candidacy.
Spence, a parent of children at Crittenden, Graham, and Slater Schools, is currently a member of the Middle School Task Force and president of the Slater PTA.
"I'm ready to move up and do something on the district level," she said. She hopes to work with the new district superintendent Jim Negri and to help pass a parcel tax measure to alleviate future budget woes.
Spence has not decided whether she will run for the two- or four-year term.
Higgins is also unsure which term she will run for. A parent of two children at Slater School, she is a volunteer with PACT, a parent participation program.
She also works with Arts Focus, the GATE (Gifted and Talented Education) Advisory Committee, and the parcel tax effort.
"Differentiation has become my passion," said Higgins, who hopes to influence school policy through supporting multi-level learning.
Wheeler, who has two adult children and a second-grader at Bubb School, is planning to run for the four-year term. She calls Aranda her mentor and has already secured a formal endorsement from him.
She is currently a member of the Bubb PTA, Bubb site council, and Star Partners, an English language development program, as well as the districtwide Communication Action Team.
She hopes to be a communicative board member and hold weekly office hours.
According to Aranda, Wheeler, a part-time attorney who specializes in family law, will be "just perfect" as a school board member.
Trustee Russ Wood, the current board president, said he will not run for re-election this November.
"This is strictly a personal decision based on consultation with the people that matter most to me and that's my family," said Wood.
He said he considers board service to be valuable but found it demanding while also trying to juggle full-time employment as an application engineering manager and full-time fatherhood to two girls.
When his two-year term concludes at the end of this year, Wood plans to increase his involvement with the Mountain View Educational Foundation.
Trustee Fran Kruss, whose term is also ending this year, has not yet filed for candidacy although she has recently expressed desire to run for re-election.
Mountain View-Los Altos Union High School District
The high school district board will have open seats for three four-year terms.
Current board members Judy Hannemann and David Williams and newcomer Julia Rosenberg are planning to run in the November election.
Hannemann, recently selected by Assemblyman Joe Simitian as "Woman of the Year," is in her 26th year of board service. She first began on the Los Altos School District board and later helped form CHAC (Community Health Awareness Council).
Williams, the board president, is concluding his first term this year. Two things the board has worked on during his four years have been the construction projects at both high schools and open enrollment for Advanced Placement classes at Mountain View High School, he said.
He expects two upcoming issues to be the California High School Exit Exam, which roughly 80 percent of MVLA sophomores passed, and closing the achievement gap.
Rosenberg has been the PTA president at both Blach and Springer Schools in the Los Altos School District. She currently serves as the president of the Mountain View-Los Altos High School Foundation and vice president of the Sixth District PTA in Santa Clara County.
Rosenberg, whose sons are in ninth and twelfth grades at Los Altos High School, was also recently on the school site council.
She said running for the school board "seemed like a natural progression with all of my volunteer work in the schools."
As a board member, she hopes to shift the focus back to academics as construction nears it end.
Trustee Sue Graham said she will not run for re-election. She has completed two terms on the board and said she's ready to move on.
"It's just time to let someone new, younger, and with children closer to high school age in," said Graham. Her own children graduated from high school in 1986 and 1988.
She will continue to serve in the community as a member of CHAC's board of directors and the City of Mountain View's downtown committee.
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