Two-year term on school board at stake
n By Marilyn Dubil Staff Writer
A retired Morgan Hill School District principal and a retired district teacher are among the 13 people who have applied for the vacant two-year term on the Morgan Hill School Board.
Trustees were told during their Sept. 20 board meeting that they must at least make the attempt to appoint someone to fill the vacancy created when former Trustee Tom Kinoshita resigned March 15.
Earlier, trustees voted to fill the seat during the upcoming November election. There was no penalty mentioned when trustees were told the appointment must be attempted.
The confusion began when no candidates filed for the seat before the end of the filing period. The deadline to file for the other three seats – which will be full four-year terms – was extended five days because none of the incumbents filed to run for re-election. Many assumed the deadline for the two-year seat was extended as well, but it was not, according to officials from the Registrar of Voter’s office, because there was no incumbent as there is in the other three seats.
The candidates who filled out a six-question interview form by Friday’s 4 p.m. deadline are: Abigale Almerido of San Jose, Robert P. Benevento of Morgan Hill, Joseph Briones of San Martin, Tracey Ciccone of Morgan Hill, Michael Crocker of Morgan Hill, Barton L. Fisher of Morgan Hill, Stephen Johnson of Morgan Hill, Jim McMahon of Morgan Hill, Don Moody of Morgan Hill, Mark Sparacino of Morgan Hill, Al Tervalon of Morgan Hill, Earl Webb of Morgan Hill and Robert Whitelaw of Morgan Hill.
Crocker is the retired principal of Jackson Elementary School; Moody has been active in the Live Oak Band Boosters organization; Ciccone and Sparacino are frequent attendees at board meetings; Webb is a retired Live Oak High teacher.
Almerido is a Live Oak graduate who has a brother and sister in the district. Though she currently works as an adviser for a teen newspaper based in Fremont, she has worked for the district in the past, as an ESL aide at Martin Murphy Middle and then an AVID and homework center tutor.
Benevento has a son who graduated from Live Oak in 2003. He has served on the Live Oak High School Site Council, as well as the Live Oak Athletic boosters and has been active in Pony Baseball for many years. He works as a business development manager for DCL Corp.
Briones has six children that have attended district schools. He has been involved with Live Oak Boosters, and is currently a member of the San Martin Foothill Water Board. He is also involved with Morgan Hill Pony Baseball and Pop Warner Football and the owner of Sunnyside Produce/
Ciccone has two children, ages 8 and 11, at Nordstrom Elementary. She was a member of the most recent district boundary committee that worked for months to create options for high school boundaries for School Board trustees to vote on. She is a finance and planning manager for IBM.
Crocker was a teacher before he became principal at Jackson Elementary. He served as co-president, president-elect and president of the Morgan Hill Educational Leaders Association, and is a member of the Santa Clara Association of School Administrators. He is currently retired.
Fisher, who does not have children in the district, recently moved to Morgan Hill, choosing the area with his wife to raise their children. He works as a senior training specialist for IDT Inc. and has been active in community organizations, such as the County of Santa Clara Job Creation Task Force.
Johnson has two children at Paradise Valley Elementary. He works for Calpine Corp. in business development.
McMahon has one child who graduated from Live Oak in 2002 and one who is currently at Live Oak. A former San Jose police sergeant, he serves as an appointed member of the governor’s High Technology Crime Advisory Committee.
Moody has two daughters who are Live Oak graduates. He works as senior plant manager for a company that provides products and services to pharmaceutical and biomedical research companies. He has been with the district through various committees, including DACIE and two boundary committees, and school site councils, as well as the Live Oak Band Boosters. He also has been involved in community organizations, including the Literacy Council in San Benito County and the Live Oak Foundation.
Sparacino has two daughters, one a Live Oak graduate and one a freshman at Live Oak. He has served on the board of his homeowner’s association for many years, and currently works as a senior research scientist at Gilead Sciences.
Tervalon has two young children, 2 years and 15 months, and would like to get involved to improve the district for their future. He is an engineer with PerkinElmer Optoelectronics.
Webb has six grandchildren currently in the district. He was a teacher Live Oak; before that he worked as teacher, department chair, associate dean, aide to the provost and aide to the president at Evergreen Community College. He also served for 16 years in the Hayward Union School District.
Whitelaw has a 5-year-old child at Nordstrom Elementary. He is a real estate broker who has a family history of involvement in education.
Six candidates are vying for the three four-year terms on the board in the Nov. 2 election.
Marilyn Dubil covers education and law enforcement for The Times. She can be reached by e-mail at md****@*************es.com or phoning (408) 779-4106Ext. 202
