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A group of Sunol residents have raised nearly $20,000 in contributions for the Sunol Glen Unified School District to cover the cost of holding a special election to recall school Board President Ryan Jergensen and Trustee Linda Hurley.
Members of the pro-recall campaign said they wanted to make sure the cost of the election is taken care of so that Sunolians could stop worrying about “disinformation” being spread by the anti-recall campaign regarding who will pay for the election costs and start focusing on the reasons why the recall is being brought up in the first place.
“Throughout this whole ordeal — all of the reasons and bad governance and lies and disrespect of teachers — all of the things that made the community want to recall, are not being talked about,” Kelly Goldsmith, a commuter parent from Fremont and committee member on the pro-recall campaign, told the Weekly. “Instead (the anti-recall supporters) are talking about ‘oh the election is not going to be paid for and this is going to cost the school money.’ “
“It’s very upsetting to see that disinformation out in the community and people start to have a little twinge of doubt of what we’re saying is true,” Goldsmith added. “We (were) like let’s just nip this in the bud, let’s just get rid of any doubt about whether or not the election is going to be paid for.”
It’s been just over half a year since the United for Sunol Glen recall campaign began the process of petitioning for a special recall election for trustees Jergensen and Hurley. The two have been in the public spotlight since last September’s contentious board meeting where the two voted to approve a flag resolution that only allows the one-school district to fly the U.S. and state flags on school grounds.
Ever since then, the small town has been riddled with divisiveness between people who support their decision to not allow any other flags — such as the Pride flag, which was a main point of contention — to be flown and those who believe the two trustees not only failed the community with the flag resolution but have failed them time and time again through bad governance.
The special recall election will be on July 2 but mail-in ballots have already been sent out by the Alameda County Registrar of Voters’ Office as of the first week of June, Goldsmith said. According to the recall campaign, polls at the Sunol Glen School will be open every day from June 22 until July 2.
But for months now — especially at previous school board meetings — Hurley, Jergensen and folks from the anti-recall campaign have said the price of the recall election is too costly for the school to pay.
“I have heard from several in our community who have stated that they have seen and heard many things about this expensive special recall election, but they are not sure what is true, nor do they know who to trust on these issues. I get that,” Jergensen stated on the One Sunol anti-recall campaign website. “I believe it would be very tough to judge if you have not been intimately aware of what has been going on.”
However, as was announced by former Sunol school board trustee Vic Cloutier in a June 14 newsletter to Inform Sunol, the community doesn’t have to worry about how the school will pay for the election.
“I am writing as one of the 19 families in Sunol that have so far donated $19,250 to the school to offset the cost of the recall election,” Cloutier said. “There has been much discussion and chatter about the cost of the election and who is funding the Recall. The answer is simple: Your neighbors.”
Outgoing Sunol Glen Principal and Superintendent Molleen Barnes confirmed that not only does the school believe it will have enough money to cover the cost of the election, but that all of the donations — except for a $300 donation that came from a family who live on the border of Sunol and Fremont — are from Sunol residents.
“We believe that the $19,850 we have collected so far (as donations continue to come in!) will indeed cover the cost of the special recall election per our understanding of the cost of this election,” Barnes said.
According to Cloutier, the registrar’s office confirmed that the estimated cost of the election will be between $15,618 and $17,262 but the school won’t know the total amount for sure until 90 days after the election.
Goldsmith said the recall campaign had always planned to ask local families to donate money toward paying for the cost of the election because they wanted to make sure the school did not have to pay for anything. She said originally the plan was to have the families pledge the money so that once the school got the bill for the election 90 days after July 2, the families could then donate the money.
But Goldsmith said Jergensen, Hurley and the anti-recall campaign have been spreading disinformation about who will be paying for the recall and questioning whether or not the recall will be paid for by its supporters or if it will be paid for by outside political factions.
“We live within the 84 amazing square miles that constitute Sunol. Not one of us is an ‘outsider’,” Cloutier said. “The overwhelming majority of donors are former school board trustees, substitute teachers, parents, former parents of Sunol Glen students, former pupils and longtime supporters. We are Sunolians who have been thoroughly distraught by what is happening to our beloved school.”
At the time of publication, neither Jergensen nor Hurley had responded to requests for comment.
Goldsmith said that it has been disheartening to see the two trustees go to great lengths to scare people from voting by saying that a vote to recall would cost the school money or that the recall group is being led by outside political groups when the reality is that not only is the election now being funded by Sunol families, but it has always been led by Sunolians and people with deep ties to the community.
“How many ways do Sunolians have to say ‘no we are Sunol, we are standing up as Sunolians to clean house and do something about this,’ ” Goldsmith said. “We had over 300 people sign the recall petitions, we now have over 19 families from Sunol donate this huge chunk of money in an amazing show of generosity and support for the school.”
She said despite their attempts to suppress people from voting or dissuade them from taking part in the recall, the two trustees’ positions on the board will be challenged on July 2 and she hopes for the sake of the school that people vote them out.
“What’s happening at Sunol glen School is breaking people’s hearts and Ryan and Linda are quick to say that it’s the recall that’s causing the problem,” Goldsmith said. “The problem was there before the recall campaign started. The recall is the solution to the problem, it is not what is causing the divisiveness.”
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