Kathleen Sullivan, Peter Mandel and Julia Hover-Smoot remain the
top candidates for the three openings on the Morgan Hill School
District board after a weekend of absentee ballot counting.
Kathleen Sullivan, Peter Mandel and Julia Hover-Smoot remain the top candidates for the three openings on the Morgan Hill School District board after a weekend of absentee ballot counting.
Countywide, the Registrar of Voters office still has to count approximately 20,000 provisional ballots before results from the Nov. 2 election will be final. The provisional ballots are not expected to affect the outcome of the school district race.
As of 4pm Monday, Sullivan had 10,640 votes, or 26.54 percent; Mandel had 8,200 votes, or 20.46 percent; and Hover-Smoot had 7,202 votes, or 17.97 percent.
The three new trustees next month will join Don Moody, appointed last month to the final two years of Tom Kinoshita’s term, Mike Hickey, Amina Khemici and Shellé Thomas, elected to four-year terms in 2002, on the board.
Harlen Warthen was in fourth place with 6,030 votes, or 15.04 percent. Fifth- and sixth-place finishers, respectively, were Bob Griesinger, 4,093 votes for 10.21 percent, and Mike Davenport, 3,856 votes for 9.62 percent.
There were 62 write-in votes, or 0.15 percent.
Warthen said Monday that while he would have like to win a seat and would have worked hard if elected, he isn’t upset about coming in fourth.
“I had mixed feelings about running to begin with,” he said. “And I think I have accomplished a good bit since I started two years ago. Then, I was the only dissenter, and now more and more people have jumped on the bandwagon. If I hadn’t started two years ago, I think it would be a different picture right now; I don’t know if Tom would have resigned, I don’t know if one or more of the old board members would have run again.”
Some in the community have described Warthen as a catalyst for change in the district.
“I think I got the ball rolling,” he said. “I think I’ll probably keep attending, but I’ll pick and choose the meetings I go to. It’s only fair to give the new board a chance to make changes right now. They’ve got an opportunity to do the right thing now.”
Warthen approves of the newly elected candidates.
“I think Peter and Julia will do a good job,” he said. “Kathy, I think she needs to guard against being too naive. From a priority standpoint, Carolyn (Superintendent McKennan) has to go; change is not going to take place effectively with her there. Then, with Coyote Valley, they’ve got to make a decision and stick with it … Once you take care of those priorities, then you can get in there and go flat out into the academics, which is ultimately what every candidate that ran is for “creating a district that can deliver a superb education for our kids.”
