Incumbents Shelle Thomas, Don Moody and newcomer Bart Fisher are
the best choices for Morgan Hill Unified School District Board of
Education
In the race for four Morgan Hill Unified School District trustee seats, five candidates are seeking your vote: incumbents Shelle Thomas, Amina Khemici, Mike Hickey and Don Moody and challenger Bart Fisher. We’re endorsing three of them.
We urge voters to return Thomas and Moody to the school board and to elect Fisher.
In her first term as a school board member, Thomas has impressed us with her willingness to ask difficult questions. She understands that her duty is to the students and parents of the school district, and we respect her willingness to put their best interests first, even if it’s difficult or uncomfortable.
In addition, she is extremely knowledgeable about the district’s most important long-term challenge, Coyote Valley development plans. Thomas frequently attends meetings of the specific plan task force, keeping abreast of the City of San Jose’s plans to build homes for as many as 80,000 new residents on 3,200 acres of mostly bucolic farm land within the school district’s boundaries.
Moody, who was appointed to replace Tom Kinoshita when he resigned from the school board two years ago, has proven to be an even-tempered, open-minded trustee. He acknowledges that the school board and administration need to improve their communications skills, starting first with making sure that the body never again violates the state’s open government law known as the Brown Act. He promises to work to create additional transparency in school district and school board operations.
Fisher, the only non-incumbent in the race, represents the new blood that every organization needs from time to time. He brings an outsider’s perspective, will not accept “because we’ve always done it that way” as valid line of reasoning, and has the temperament to handle the passion that surrounds education and the experience to manage the change that the district is undergoing.
When it comes to your fourth vote, we’re not sure what to advise.
In our editorial board interview, Hickey displayed finger-wagging defensiveness in response to legitimate questions about the school board and its administration, which does not serve anyone’s best interest except perhaps the administration.
Khemici was long on platitudes but woefully short on ideas of any kind on how to achieve them, which is especially disappointing in someone who works as a special education teacher.
Perhaps the most meaningful ballot you can cast for a fourth trustee would be to pencil in the name of an eligible write-in candidate. In general, registered voters who live within the school district’s boundaries and who are not employees of the school district are eligible to be write-in candidates.
But whatever you do about that fourth school board seat, we urge you to elect Thomas, Moody and Fisher as MHUSD trustees.
