Tracy Press

 
Only a single incumbent chose not to run for Tracy-area school board seats, but several will have competition.

School board elections in all Tracy-area districts brought out several new names this year and all but one incumbent back for re-election.

Five candidates — three of them incumbents — will run for four spots on the seven-member Tracy Unified School District Board of Trustees.

When 15-year trustee Joan Feller retired earlier this year for health reasons, she left an unexpired two-year term up for grabs.

Eight-year trustee Kelly Lewis will run in her place against newcomer Mark Spector, a Bay Area software engineer.

Lewis planned to end his career as trustee this year, but when the two-year spot opened, he decided to give it a shot.

“I wanted to see a few of the things we started finished,” he said of his decision to run again for the 16,500-student district, which this year saw a spate of new construction paid for by a 2006 $51 million school bond.

Board President James Vaughn ends his first term on the school board this year and has registered to run for re-election along with four-term incumbent Tom Hawkins.

Newly retired Tracy Adult School Principal Walter Gouveia announced early this summer his decision to run after stepping down from 29 years as a district counselor-then-administrator.

Father-of-three Greg Silva will also run for a full four-year term.

The 22-year Tracy resident has served on several school commissions, including the Measure E oversight committee, a group that keeps the district accountable for its $51 million bond money.

Meanwhile, five candidates will vie for two seats on the Lammersville Elementary School District Board of Trustees in a year when district leaders are making headway in establishing independence from the neighboring Tracy school district.

It’s also the first year Lammersville, being the area’s youngest district, made it to the general election ballot.

“It’s pretty exciting,” said Noel Balzarini of the district’s superintendent’s office.

Board President Matthew Balzarini will retire from the five-member school board and run instead for the inaugural Mountain House Community Services District governing board.

Incumbent Yolanda Salsedo filed for re-election for the near-1,800-student district.

In addition to the active trustee, candidates for the Mountain House school district include retired office manager Melissa Engelbert, school teacher-vice principal Benjamin Fobert, professor-and-university psychologist James Hiramoto and Pulte Homes certified public accountant Colin Clements.

Most candidates cited unification, wanting to be involved in their kids’ education and setting the tone for a growing district as the crux of why they chose to run.

Plans to someday build a new high school need to be tempered with wise money management, Clements said, adding that the addition of a secondary-level school in the unincorporated community “would be an ideal capstone for the district.”

He said he’d also like to see more transparency among board members about why decisions — especially those financial in nature — are made.

Hiramoto, who heads the psychology department at Alliant International University in San Francisco, said he believes his background in public education gives him an outlook valuable to help guide a young school district.

At Jefferson School District, two of five trustees’ terms expire this year and both incumbents, Debbie Wingo and Peter Carlson, have pulled papers to run again against Tracy childcare provider Jacqueline Thomas.

Wingo and Carlson have both been trustees for the 2,400-student district since 1996.

Banta and New Jerusalem elementary school districts each have three-member boards and since no new candidates filed before the early August deadline, sitting trustees will be automatically reappointed.

• To view the registered candidates, visit the San Joaquin County Registrar of Voters Office Website at http://www.sjcrov.org/uploads/candidatelist.pdf.

• To reach Tracy Press reporter Jennifer Wadsworth, call 830-4225 or e-mail This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

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written by solar_biscuit , August 19, 2008

Get the incumbents OUT or nothing changes!

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written by Jim Lamb , August 19, 2008

More information on the Lammersville seat:
http://wiki.mhvillages.com/~wi...l_District