Rosemary Kamei is the newest member of the Santa Clara County Board of Education. Last night’s vote wrapped up a 5-hour examination of the five candidates who applied for appointment to the vacant seat created when Leon Beauchman left to focus on other responsibilities. It ultimately came down to two very well qualified candidates: Kamei and former City Council member Judy Chirco. But the great divide between those two was the question of who will be the voice of reason on a board that has been a rubber stamp for charter schools.
Board President Darcie Green’s vote for Kamei shifted the balance of power on the board away from charter school ideologues. The board took up the matter a little after 6 p.m. and the session stretched until almost 11. After exhaustively interviewing the candidates, the vote was deadlocked at 3 for Judy and 3 for Rosemary, but the President of the Board Darcie Green indicated that her vote was movable. The board then did another round of questions of Judy and Rosemary. Throughout the night Kamei demonstrated a command of the facts and policy that was not matched by any other candidate. Still, the charter school ideologues on the board, Joseph Di Salvo and Grace Mah, voted for Judy Chirco. President Green appeared to want a special election instead of an appointment, but there was no support to spend almost a million dollars of taxpayer money for a special election. Ultimately Green switched her vote to Kamei ending the deadlock, and the final vote drew the support of the entire board for Kamei. Kamei will serve until 2016 at which point there will be an election for the Area 3 post which represents Cambrian, Campbell Union, Luther Burbank, Moreland, Union and Campbell Union High school districts and a small portions of San Jose Unified and Santa Clara Unified.
Kamei is Executive Director of the non-profit, Building Futures Now, which mentors students in underserved communities in the Ravenswood School District of East Palo Alto. Prior to that position, Kamei was with the Silicon Valley Education Foundation.
Do you have a news tip you would like to share? Would you like to contribute to The Left Hook? Email us at LeftHookBlog@gmail.com
No Comments