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To the surprise of some candidates, Christopher Chiang, Steven Nelson and Bill Lambert will replace three outgoing trustees on the Mountain View Whisman School District’s school board.

With all the precincts reporting in the district’s first contested election since 2004, Chiang ended up with the most votes — 7,705 (24.38 percent) — with 7,058 votes (24.38 percent) going to Nelson, and Lambert coming in third with 5,224 votes (19.98 percent).

Nelson seemed pleasantly surprised as he left an election night party hosted by local television station KMVT. Over the course of the night, KMVT personalities conducted on-camera interviews with all the MVWSD school board candidates, along with candidates running for Mountain View City Council and other local offices. When not on camera, the candidates, their families, members of the press and others milled about the station eating finger foods and sipping beverages.

In a prepared statement in the event that he was elected, Nelson said, “I appreciate the citizens of this district hiring me to be a trustee over this important community resources. I will work diligently over the next four years.”

The early results seemed to surprise Jim Pollart and Peter Darrah — each of whom trailed the front runner Chiang by a significant margin. Darrah came in fourth place with 5,224 votes (18.05 percent) and Pollart was the furthest behind with 3,177 votes (10.97 percent).

Darrah seemed flabbergasted and dejected as he considered the early numbers on election night. “I thought I would do better than I’m doing,” he said, noting that he was especially surprised that Pollart was so far behind. “That guy has done more for this district than anybody has,” Darrah continued — referring to Pollart’s leadership in the Share Shoreline group to gain additional tax revenue for local schools.

“I’m concerned that having Steve on the board will be very difficult for the school district,” Darrah said of Nelson. “He has a reputation for throwing a wrench in the spokes of the district. He opposed Measure G for no clear reason, he has gotten in front of the board and sung and recited poetry. It’s going to be difficult for the district to attract new trustees members with him on the board.”

“I’m concerned that having Steve on the board will be very difficult for the school district,” Darrah said of Nelson. “He has a reputation for throwing a wrench in the spokes of the district. He opposed Measure G for no clear reason, he has gotten in front of the board and sung and recited poetry. It’s going to be difficult for the district to attract new trustees members with him on the board.”

“I won’t respond to that,” Nelson said when asked for a reaction to Darrah’s statement.

He continued to say that he recognizes that some in the community, on the board and within the district see him as a gadfly. That is going to change, he said, pledging that he will not continue to resort to the types of tactics he used in the past. “When you’re an outsider there is a different way to attack political problems,” he explained. His strategy as a school board outsider was to be as loud as possible. When he begins working with the board, he said he will make a great deal of effort to mend any relations that may have been strained over the past couple years between himself and the district and promised to work more tactfully to accomplish his goals.

However, he was sure to note, “I am not a rubber stamp.” Nelson said he will challenge the district administration when he disagrees with them.

At the KMVT election night party, Pollart kept composed but occasionally betrayed his emotions with a somewhat dazed look.

“I don’t want to give you a quote at this point assuming I’m going to lose,” he said. However, he did say that he believed the campaign was very worthwhile no matter the outcome.

“This is the first time in eight years that there’s actually been an election, and I think it was really good for the district,” he said. “I think it raised awareness in the community about what’s going on in our schools, which I think is great. I think all the candidates are well qualified. And so I think regardless of who wins I think it’s a step forward for the district.”

Pollart said he hoped to see contested district elections in the future, with more new candidates bringing fresh ideas to the district.

Both Chiang and Lambert shared Pollart’s assessment, saying they were happy that a contested election had been held, as the coverage in the local press and the attention it garnered from residents would only serve to strengthen the district.

Chiang said he would like to see the district work to collect more data to better understand what its schools need. “What we measure — we end up doing all kinds of things based on that,” he said.

Lambert said he would like to see more attention paid to lower-income schools, such as Castro, Monta Loma and Theuerkauf. Pushing innovative programs at the schools in wealthier neighborhoods is great, he said, but it is more crucial to do better in the lower performing, lower income schools.

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14 Comments

  1. Wow Darrah, way to show what a poor loser you are. No grace or class. I guess you think the voting public is a bunch of idiots. As for the CEO-type Pollart, he’s paying for his allegiance to Ghysels and his view that teacher’s suffer from “a victim mentality”.

  5. This will make life very interesting for superintendent Craig Goldman. Say what you will about Steven Nelson’s personality, but you have to give him credit for NOT being a rubber stamp who will blindly and unquestioningly go along with everything and anything that Craig wants.

    One thing that Steven will fight for is to re-open one of the leased-out elementary schools in the Whisman side of town, which currently has no neighborhood school.

    And maybe it’s not too late to prevent Craig from tearing down our beautiful, newly renovated elementary school classrooms and replacing them with 2-story mega-schools.

  9. I urge residents and parents who are interested in my ability to offer constructive, new ideas to the operations of our school District to attend the Nov. 15 Board meeting. I have an agenda item as a citizen, 10 minutes, for urging the current Board to proceed with considering Automatic Fire Sprinkler Systems for all the classroom wings using part of the Bond G money. This would be retrofit for most classrooms. Google “Trace Fire” “grand jury” for more detailed information.

    SN is the candidate mentioned in thsi article

  10. Since I failed to insert my congratulations to Chris, Steve, and Bill into the public record last night – let me do that now. Congratulations to the three of you on winning a good campaign. From our many times together, I know you all work hard and are dedicated to improving education for all of our children.

    I would like to commend Steve for his efforts to increase dialog around what the Measure G funds are to be spent on. I hope we all get more involved in deciding whether we re-open school sites and/or build two story schools – and what kind of sprinklers they have.

    I would like to commend Chris for continuing his focus on education and looking at new ways we can improve instruction, assessment and training. Teaching is the core mission of the District and we shouldn’t loose sight of that in the dialog about other issues.

    I would like to commend Bill for his deep ties to the community, many hours of volunteering, and bringing representation of the Monta Loma area to the Board.

    We’re all on the same team. Let’s keep pushing to improve our schools for our children.

    Peter Darrah

  13. Mr. Nelson,

    Please consider the downside of fire sprinklers in your discussion as well. Most systems are triggered whenever a fire alarm goes off. I don’t have statistics handy, but I suspect in schools where most student work is still paper, false alarms triggering sprinkler starts cause more damage overall than fires like Trace. If you want to protect schools from vandalism (and arson), then they might not be appropriate as joint use facilities with public parks.

    Just consider that every good idea has another side…

  14. I expect someone who says that they’re a teacher to have an understanding of children, learning, brain development, and educational theories. Many teachers have 40-70 units ABOVE a BA and have to jump through a variety of hoops to be able to say that they are qualified to be a teacher in the public school system.

    To be a substitute you need a BA or BS in anything and you have to pass a test that has 8th grade material on it. With the exception a very few people, subs are warm bodies in a room, not professional educators. Subs follow plans that the actual teacher writes. So, IF they can follow directions anyone can do the job. Subs don’t plan or design lessons. I don’t know one teacher that would give a sub new material to teach; therefore it’s all review or busy work. So, yes it does matter. Subs don’t work a 50-60 hour workweek, sit in meetings, and get bogged down by district bureaucracy and mandates. They’re in at 8 and out by 3.

  15. Just wanted to say “THANK YOU!” to all of the candidates for supporting our kids, schools, and community. We know you are all already busy and we appreciate you taking on this additional challenge. Let us know how we can help!

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