Rossi steps into county school seat, incumbents take MH city council

Published in the Nov. 12-25, 2014 issue of Morgan Hill Life

By Robert Airoldi and Marty Cheek

Photo by Marty Cheek Morgan Hill Unified School District board candidate Ann Horner, left, checks out early returns with former school board trustee Kathy Sullivan at Rosy’s at the Beach election night. Horner came in fifth, with four available seats.

Photo by Marty Cheek
Morgan Hill Unified School District board candidate Ann Horner, left, checks out early returns with former school board trustee Kathy Sullivan at Rosy’s at the Beach election night. Horner came in fifth, with four available seats.

The excitement of finding out who won in Nov. 2’s Election Day competitions filled Rosy’s at the Beach restaurant as local residents and candidates crowded the bar area in the early evening to monitor the Santa Clara County Registrar of Voters website through their smartphones and iPads.

A glitch in the county’s online information system kept people from getting updates other than the initial posting of the vote-by-mail results shortly after 8 p.m., but that didn’t keep people from the Election Day thrill of vote victory and agony of democratic defeat for their candidates, propositions and ballot measures.

The ultimate outcome for the city council race was that voters in a narrow decision want incumbent council members Gordon Siebert and Rich Constantine back on board. As of Friday Nov. 7, Siebert received 3,205 votes, Constantine received 3,120 votes, challenger Donna Brusaschetti came in at 2,848 votes, and Joseph Carrillo received 1,221 votes.

Local voters decided to send Morgan Hill Unified School District trustee Ron Woolf (with 3,700 votes) back to serve a second term, and joining him will be new school board members Donna Foster Ruebusch (4,658 votes), Gino Borgioli (3,456 votes), and David Gerard (3,354 votes). Julia Hover-Smoot will step down from her seat on the Santa Clara County Board of Education to be replaced by Claudia Rossi, who is leaving the MHUSD school board where she has served for four years.

Rossi, who works at Teen Force, garnered 56.9 percent of the vote (17,715 votes) to attorney Hover-Smoot’s 43.1 percent (13,416 votes).
“I think the voters resoundingly rejected the unprecedented attempted takeover of our election process,” said Rossi.

During the campaign, the California Charter School Association Advocates spent about $185,000 in independent expenditure money on a seemingly never-ending flurry of mailers sent to local voters’ mailboxes touting Hover-Smoot’s support of charter schools and denouncing Rossi.

“(The CCSAA) didn’t calculate the effect of excessive negative campaigning,” Rossi said. “It only solidified my supporters’ resolve. Every mailer that came in brought in more energized and excited volunteers to my campaign.”

School board candidate Armando Benavides looks at the Santa Clara County Registrar of Voters website at Dutchman's Pizza on election night,.

School board candidate Armando Benavides looks at the Santa Clara County Registrar of Voters website at Dutchman’s Pizza on election night. Photo by Marty Cheek

Hover-Smoot said that the small turn out of voters impacted the results of the county board of education election. About 28 percent of the entire voter population voted and only 22 percent of that number cast votes in the county board of education race.

“Honestly, given that it’s such a small turnout, you have to give credit to the union that they got their vote out,” she said. “It became a black and white issue between the unions and the charter schools.”

She also thinks that the heavy bombardment of voters with CCSAA mailers hurt her campaign because it made her look desperate with her chance of getting re-elected.

“There were too many being sent out, it’s going to make me look like I need help,” she said.

Hover-Smoot encourages more diversity in representation in the various school boards and encourages Rossi to focus on that when she goes on the county board.

“I hope that Claudia will continue to keep the promises that my board has been keeping and that is the promise of equal opportunity and justice,” she said.

The race for four Morgan Hill Unified School District board seats was also inundated with independent expenditure campaigning from the CCSAA. It spent more than $6,000 for each candidate on mailers that touted for MHUSD board Borgioli, Armando Benavides (2,580 votes, Janine Moreno (2,343 votes), and Brenda Cayme (1,870 votes), only Borgioli gaining the voting public’s nod of approval. The Morgan Hill Federation of Teachers supported four candidates: Foster Ruebusch, Woolf, Gerard and Stephen Klem (2,955 votes). Morgan Hill resident Ann Horner sought no endorsements in the race, deciding to be an independent candidate, and came in fifth place with 3,087 votes.

Gerard said he looks forward to a “robust and respectful dialogue” on the board to find new ways to engage the community to build the district into an academic powerhouse.

“The results suggest that the community wants to bring a blend of stability and innovation to the new board,” he said. “Voters showed remarkable independence in choosing individuals with widely different points of view to serve together instead of simply going with a so-called slate. Working together we can close the achievement gaps, better serve special needs kids and raise the overall performance and life preparation of every student.”

A former teacher at Live Oak High School, Ruebusch will seek ways to improve how the school district works with the community to improve local education.

“They want us to keep the positive direction were moving in,” she said. “I think the community is in support of that message.”

Unlike the school races, the Morgan Hill City Council race was not influenced by outside campaigning efforts.

Siebert said he appreciates the votes from his friends, neighbors and other voters in Morgan Hill to re-elect him to conduct the city’s business on their behalf.

“My goals are to continue to enhance transparency, especially in city finances, educate voters on important city issues and advocate for economic development, fair land use and improvements to City assets, especially streets infrastructure,” he said.

A major goal for him in returning to the council is to focus attention and effort on repairing the city’s aging and deteriorating streets.