Under the gaze of family and friends, three incoming Morgan Hill Unified School Board trustees took the oath of office and assumed their place on the school board dais Dec. 15.
The changing of the guard came on the heels of a controversial November election when then candidate Amy Porter Jensen – who previously bowed out of the race – nabbed third place out of six hopefuls.
Porter Jensen publicly announced in early October her decision to withdraw and also notified the Santa Clara County Registrar of Voters, but her name still ended up on the ballot.
“The process was more than I had anticipated, and with time restraints, I decided it best not to campaign,” explained the 33-year-old Live Oak High School alumna whose daughter is a sophomore at the school. “But I was elected and I am going to accept.”
MHUSD Superintendent Wes Smith cited the event as “democracy at work.”
“I think it’s encouraging that we have a very strong board that comes to us without an agenda and looking to help,” he said.
In the immediate aftermath of the election, some Morgan Hill residents questioned the novice trustee’s decision to assume her place on the dais, having previously attempting to withdraw her name from candidacy.
Porter Jensen responded, telling the Times, “I have had positive feedback and amazing support thus far from the community. If that opinion does reside within some members of the community, I hope with them getting to know me, they will be proud to have me on the board.”
An agriculture planner by day at Sakata Seeds in Morgan Hill, Porter Jensen decided to get her feet wet in local government because she “cares about the students, parents and staff of MHUSD.”
“As cliché as it sounds, I truly believe it takes a village to raise a child, and we need to step up,” she said.
In what turned out to be a tight race, Rick Badillo, Benevento and Porter Jensen edged out their competitors to join current trustees Don Moody, Shelle Thomas and Ron Woolf on the seven-member board.
The three seats, which are four-year terms, became vacant after trustees Peter Mandel and Kathy Sullivan decided not to seek re-election after two terms each. Trustee Bob Benevento’s appointed term also expired.
Final tallies capped off at 8,319 votes for Badillo; 7,455 for Benevento; and 7,126 for Porter Jensen.
Though Porter Jensen’s name appearing on the ballot posed an unexpected twist, Benevento said the board is focused on more pressing issues and will move forward collectively.
“The results are the results,” he resolved. “Amy won the seat and accepted the position.”
Morgan Hill is no stranger to topsy-turvy elections. In past races, two candidates who previously withdrew their hats from the ring were still elected to the dais.
According to the Santa Clara County registrar of voters, a candidate who no longer wishes to run must withdraw their name before the Aug. 10 close of the nomination period. Porter Jensen wanted to withdraw – and did in early October – but was too late.
After the newcomers were sworn in and seated Dec. 15, outgoing Board President Ron Woolf passed the gavel to newly appointed Board President Don Moody.
Moody was originally appointed to the dais in 2004 after applying for a vacancy left by the resignation of Tom Kinoshita. Moody led the board as president in 2009 and most recently served as vice president.
Trustee Shelle Thomas has assumed the title of vice president. Eager to lead, Thomas agreed to continue as a representative for Morgan Hill with the Santa Clara County Committee on School District Organization, which oversees the changes of county school district boundaries.
At a decade and counting, Thomas is the longest serving board member and has acted as board president and vice president during her lengthy tenure. She was first elected in 2002 and reelected in 2010.
Thomas is now joined by novice trustee Badillo, who won by a margin of 864 votes. The 41-year-old Navy veteran is the father of two Jackson Academy of Music and Math students and works for a family-owned construction business, R. Badillo & Sons.
After encountering “rough seas” during the five years his children attended Jackson, Badillo – also on the school site council as well as the District Advisory Committee – chose to run.
With the election chaos now over, Badillo hopes to learn more about the district’s needs.
“I know we all have the same goals, the district and the superintendent as well as the staff,” he said. “We all want to improve Academic Performance Index scores and close the achievement gap.”
The Academic Performance Index, or API score, is a numeric index that ranges from a low of 200 to a high of 1,000, with the state benchmark sitting at 800. MHUSD’s 2011-12 scores revealed a broad spectrum of significant increases and decreases. Overall, the district is up nine points from last year with a score of 789. MHUSD’s neighbor to the south, the Gilroy Unified School District, pulled in an 802.
Approximately seven MHUSD schools saw a positive shift in their recent API scores – Martin Murphy Middle School leading the pack with a 34 point jump. There were six schools that saw decreases in API scores; the lowest on the list belonging to Barrett Elementary, which saw a 28 point plummet. Barrett has shown a decreasing trend in the last four years, sliding by 44 points since 2008.
Badillo cites communication between the community and the board as a vital component to achieving scholastic goals.
“It’s nice to receive feedback from the community on what we hope to accomplish,” Badillo said.
Incumbent Benevento finished second with 7,455 votes out of more than 27,000 cast in Morgan Hill, San Martin and South San Jose.
Benevento was appointed to the board in 2010 and is a small business owner of LOBO Enterprises, a packaging company. He and his wife have four children from a blended family; three are in college and one daughter is a junior at Sobrato High School this fall.
“I’m just happy to be on board again and looking forward to working with my fellow board members,” he added in the days following the swearing in ceremony.
Benevento is eager to see the $198 million Measure G bond – which the MHUSD board unanimously voted to place on the November ballot – work its magic. The new revenue stream will pay for needed facility upgrades, but even better, says Benevento, are the pending benefits to student instruction. He’s gung-ho on improving classrooms, installing new laboratories and bringing the district’s technology infrastructure out of the dark ages.
Still, it’s unlikely Morgan Hill schools will see the bond money anytime soon, Benevento added. An update on the progress of Measure G is set to be discussed at the Jan. 15 school board meeting, with access to the funds unlikely until Spring 2013.
“We have a lot of work to do,” Benevento said.
