Over the past few weeks, the glossy flyers trickled in by mail.
Residents of Santa Clara County School Board Trustee Area 5—which includes Milpitas, Berryessa, and Santa Clara—received three different attack ads denouncing incumbent candidate Anna E. Song. One, with a darkened, distorted photograph, claimed she squandered millions of local tax dollars—through a decision the entire board made.
Another poses “So What?” in big letters, a quote the ad said Song made in opposition to the renewal of Los Altos-based Bullis Charter School’s charter in 2011. “Isn’t it time for change?” the ad asks, encouraging readers to vote for candidate David J. Neighbors instead. Voters also received one glowing ad devoted to Neighbors.
“I’ve lived in Santa Clara for 23 years, and I’ve never ever seen anything like this before,” said Dr. Christine Koltermann, a Trustee for the District who lives in Area 5. “People here don’t have a lot of money to fund these campaigns.”
The group backing the ads, the Santa Clara County Schools PAC (Political Action Committee), is financed almost exclusively by groups and individuals that sit outside of Trustee Area 5, including its founder, who lives in Canada. The main funders are Laurene Powell Jobs, Steve Jobs' widow; the California Charter School Association, of which Bullis Charter School is a member; Reed Hastings; and John Fischer, according to a filing document from the Registrar of Voters office in San Jose. It became public record on Friday, the day after it was officially filed.
Santa Clara County School PAC's principal officer is Alicia Gallegos Fambrini, who was hired by the San Jose Charter School Consortium, which is part of the California Charter School Association.
Often a county Board of Education election is a sleepy affair, a race that slips unnoticed by all but the most devout local education politicos. But Song and her supporters say the Santa Clara County Schools PAC is seeking to change that through a smear campaign backed by special interests who are not part of Trustee Area 5.
“People who do not live here, vote here, pay taxes here, or send their children to school here are attempting to control who represents the people here,” said Dr. Koltermann.
Song said the now-infamous “So What?” quote and other information in the ads is blown out of proportion. The Bullis Charter School received a high API score, which Song had said was to be expected, given the high socioeconomic status of the parents who send their students to the school in Los Altos.
“It’s not even close to accurate that I don’t care about high-achieving schools,” said Song, who expressed the opinion at a county school board meeting in September 2011. , and the question of how much outreach to the less-advantaged, Hispanic English language learners in the charter's school's territory in Mountain View was raised. The school was asked to provide a plan for outreach as a result. Some parents in the Los Altos School District had applauded the process that resulted in BCS' to do more outreach to disadvantaged students in the district.
“Just because they scored high on the report, I asked what else they’re doing,” Song said. . Both Song and county board president Joseph Di Salvo said then that charter schools, as public schools, must serve a larger community.
“To take that comment and purport that Anna doesn’t care is false and misleading. It also has nothing to do with Trustee Area 5,” said Dr. Ina Bendis, a Santa Clara resident and Board of Trustees member, pointing out that it was said in relation to a charter school renewal that took place in Trustee Area 1, which covers Los Altos, Los Altos Hills, Palo Alto and Mountain View.
Indeed, one of the mailers features a large-type quote from Ron Haley, a Bullis Charter School parent from Los Altos Hills known for his incendiary comments related to the long-running Bullis Charter School-Los Altos School district disputes.
In August, the Santa Clara County Schools PAC was founded by two political consultants: Jay Rosenthal, the founder of JMR Strategic who divides his time between working in San Francisco and Ontario, Canada, and San Jose-based Jude Barry, the CEO of Catapult Strategies and former advisor to Fortune 500 Companies and the San Francisco 49ers. He was also the well-known the political strategist who engineered the rapid rise of San Jose Mayor Ron Gonzales. The PAC hired a political treasurer based out of Elk Grove, a suburb of Sacramento.
Both said they felt that Trustee Area 5’s race has broad implications for the rest of Santa Clara County’s education system. As there are only seven Board Member slots Santa Clara County-wide, said Rosenthal, each carries great weight in County-wide decision making.
“These are really important races that we wanted to have a strong voice,” said Rosenthal, who designed the flyers against Song. “We support candidates that are fiscally responsible and great board members. Many people felt that what Song said ['So what?'] was an inappropropriate comment.”
The fiscal matter raised by the PAC, was the 2008 board decision to give then-Superintendent Charles Weis a low-interest, no-downpayment home loan of $915,000 to purchase a luxury condominium in San Jose. The condo lost value by the time Weis retired last spring and the ex-superintendent asked the board to take it back, effectively handing the county board a property that is underwater.
The PAC has also designed ads for Trustee Area 1, backing candidate Grace Mah, who they feel has been a consistent supporter of education reform, Rosenthal said.
Rosenthal chose to support Mah despite her also voting against the renewal of the Bullis Charter School charter with Song in the 5-2 decision last year, however, pointing out she still has a strong track record. Mah was also a strong backer of Superintendent Weis. The entire board voted on the superintendent's contract that allowed Weis to return the property to the board without payment.
Some community members feel there should be an ethics code enforcing better behavior in local political campaigning.
“This really diminishes the community,” said Koltermann. “Would we want students to conduct meetings like the adults here?”
Anna Song has not responded the Santa Clara County Schools PAC. She has a different strategy, she said.
“I plan on staying positive and getting my positive message out,” said Song.
—Los Altos Patch Editor L.A. Chung contributed to this report
The SCCBOE voted 5-2 to renew the BCS charter. Anna song voted not to renew it.
http://losaltos.patch.com/articles/bullis-charter-renewed-for-5-years-by-county-board
Anna Song provided very coherent reasons on why she was against renewing BCS' charter in this letter - http://lasdobserver.blogspot.com/2011/09/bcs-and-sccoe.html
In addition, in our local Los Altos LASD Board races, the CTA and the Hutt Alliance have spent thousands of dollars supporting candidates through glossy flyers, mail pieces, etc. It would be wonderful if Patch could report on the sources and amounts of that money coming into that race. Perhaps Steve Taglio and Pablo Luther would like to comment on the amount of money coming from those two groups in support of them?
Instead I'm voting for "Joan J Strong" as a write-in candidate! I'd urge you all to join me in this bold move! Finally a candidate that stands for what we all believe in!
Bullis Charter School is bent on destroying our school district here in Los Altos. They are doing this because they think that charter schools should bring "competition" to schools, and competition means annihilating your competitors. I agree, it's dysfunctional. It's madness. It's policy that needs to change lest we lose an entire generation of kids.
The mysterious group—Santa Clara County Schools PAC—has a treasurer from Elk Grove, CA, and in a mailer they sent this week, they are trying to blame Anna for the entire mess. It also looks like this same group of wealthy Bullis Charter School backers is funding another PAC—this one formed to oppose a school board candidate in Santa Clara. I guess Bullis Charter School board members aren’t busy enough suing Los Altos School District. They clearly have cash to burn on campaigns that have absolutely no connection to their school. Reply to this comment Posted by James Rowen at 5:59 PM"
Candidates who cannot get elected without tearing down, or standing idly by while their supporters tear down, opponents do not deserve to hold elected office. And James Rowen is Santa Clara's resident cyberbully. He's currently on the campaign payrolls of Assembly Candidate Chad Walsh, Mission College Trustee canddiate Bob Owens, and Santa Clara City Council candidate Mohammed Nadeem. Since 2006, Rowen has had a blog which harasses, cyberbullies, and libels elected officials, candidates for office, and anyone who dares to write a letter, speak in front of our city council, or in any way publicly show opposition towards the use of public funds for the stadium. Rowen harasses people at home and at their work through phone calls and emails, calls and emails employers, puts in numerous cpra requests which cost public dollars to address, puts in numerous false FPPC complaints which cost public dollars to address, and stalks female elected officials. He has had police reports filed against him for his harassment/stalking.
"... own political agenda. Plough voted to give the $34,000,000 redevelopment money to the 49'ers, Not to the children of Santa Clara County. " A check of the vote shows that Plough was NOT present at that meeting. The motion was to regard the money for the stadium as not a legitimate obligation, and an alternate to Dr. Plough who worked at the COE voted to take the funds away. As far as Dr. Ina Bendis is concerned, wasn't she censured by her board for being abusive to employees? Anna Song was featured on the advertisements to approve the stadium.
To Doug Edwards and GG, you are giving Grace Mah credit that she has shown she does not deserve. For 6 years she went before the Palo Alto School Board asking for a Mandarin Immersion program. There was a final vote taken in 2008 where after a Feasibility Study was considered and much research on this was done-the Board voted it down. So Grace sent them a letter saying if you vote MI in they won't petition a Charter school. Palo Alto has never had one. This was a threat! This program would only serve about 2% of the students. Mah did not care that 98% would get no language. The Board voted it in only to avoid a Charter. Her son got into the program. She has shown no integrity in Palo Alto, and she is now showing the same lack in Los Altos. What is happening to Anna Song is the same kind of thing going on with Mah's opponent Dave Cortright. Her friend Grace Yang a parent at Bullis Charter is saying unsubstantiated negative things about Dave, defending herself by saying that she can say anything she wants, as she is not running. But Mah who is running is remaining silent. The mudslinging that Grace Yang has done, reflects very badly on Grace Mah. The County residents are smart we see that Mah is not clean running a clean campaign. She has not stuck to the issues, but supported character assassination.
There were two votes. The first time, in July, an alternate for Plough voted to suspend the contracts between the RDA and the Stadium Authority - which would have cut off the flow of the $34.4 million in RDA monies to the Stadium Authority and then to the 49ers. The 49ers then sued and the Oversight Board on the advice of its attorney voted to undo their earlier vote. Plus, the 49ers and James Rowen had complained that the July vote was a violation of the Brown Act because they claimed the subject wasn't properly agendized. Then there was another vote in August of the Oversight Board after a committee of 3 (including Plough) met to negotiate with the 49ers. The settlement they negotiated gave the entire $34.4 million to the 49ers. Plough approved of that settlement in the negotiations and in the vote of the entire Oversight Board in August. She did not fight for the children of Santa Clara Unified to get their share of the $34.4 million. The only person who didn't vote yes to give that money to the 49ers was the County's tax collector. So yes Plough did vote to give the $34.4 million to the 49ers instead of to the school children.