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In a unanimous decision, the Los Altos School District’s board selected longtime district parent and current Blach Intermediate School PTA President Brandon Stroy to fill an empty seat on the dais.
Stroy was one of four candidates vying for the spot vacated this month by former board member Vladimir Ivanovic. After serving on the board for 11 years, Ivanovic resigned over his fellow trustees’ support for giving a new campus to Bullis Charter School. With the provisional appointment, Stroy is expected to serve through the rest of Ivanovic’s term, which expires in December.
“I’ve been involved in the schools for a long time, and so, I think this is a great next step and a great way to continue trying to help the local students,” Stroy told the Voice following his appointment.
The existing school board members made the selection during a special meeting on Thursday morning, at which they publicly interviewed the candidates and talked about the top attributes they hoped to see in a new trustee.
Following the interviews and discussion, the board members filled out slips of paper, indicating their top two candidates. Superintendent Sandra McGonagle reviewed the selections and announced that Stroy was the only one to receive a vote from every trustee. The board members then voted 4-0 to approve his appointment.
“There wasn’t a wrong decision for us to make here, but given that we seem to all have an intersection, often, that’s how decisions get made on the board,” board member Bryan Johnson said.
The other three candidates were Rachel Henke, David Poll and Sarah Weitz.
Stroy’s appointment is considered provisional because, for the next 30 days, state law allows a registered voter to force a special election to fill the vacancy by submitting signatures from at least 1.5% of the district’s registered voters.
Previously, Ivanovic said that if he garnered parent support for his views, he would consider calling for an election to fill the vacancy and run for that spot himself.
Ivanovic, who was first elected in 2014, announced in January that he would resign, effective March 11, in response to the other board members’ support for allocating the district’s yet-to-be-built campus to Bullis Charter School.
The district is planning to build a new campus on an 11.7-acre plot of land in Mountain View’s San Antonio Shopping Center, and the board wants to place Bullis there. Ivanovic has said that he believes this move would unfairly privilege the charter school, which has been at odds with the school district for decades.
New board member highlights long history in Los Altos schools
Stroy, who is an intellectual property lawyer by day, highlighted during his interview that he went through the Los Altos School District himself as a kid, and now, his children are following in his footsteps. For seven years, he has served in some capacity on district PTA boards.
“I think my most important qualification is that I just care deeply about the success of the district,” Stroy said. “I’m not coming here with any particular agenda to advance as a board member.”
When asked whether he would run for election in November to keep his seat on the board, Stroy said that he’s planning on it.
“I think it would be a disservice to the board and to the community to ask for this seat if I was not planning on also running in the next election,” he told the board.
During discussion, existing board members highlighted that they wanted to appoint someone who is familiar with the Los Altos School District and open to collaborating to serve the local community.
“We have such a big impact on children’s well being,” board President Vaishali Sirkay said. “I’m looking for someone who understands the gravity of this position and is willing to work within the parameters of this position.”
After the board voted to appoint Stroy, he stood from his seat, raised his right hand and took an oath to defend the constitutions of the United States and California in his new position as a school district trustee.
