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Sunol resident Chris Bobertz is set to be sworn in as a provisional member of the Sunol Glen Unified School District Board of Trustees next week, but the appointment to succeed ousted trustee Ryan Jergensen could be short-lived.
Under California Education Code and district bylaws, Sunol voters who don’t agree with the school board’s Aug. 20 decision to appoint Bobertz can still trigger a special election for the seat, according to a public notice Sunol Glen School sent out on Friday.
“Unless a petition calling for a special election containing a sufficient number of signatures is filed with the Alameda County Superintendent of Schools within thirty (30) calendar days of the date of the provisional appointment, it shall be an effective appointment for all purposes,” the notice states.
Typically the petition would need signatures from 1.5% of the registered voters in a district. But according to the California School Boards Association, “in a district of fewer than 2,000 registered voters, the petition must be signed by at least the number of registered voters equal to 5% of the registered voters in the district at the time of the last regular election for governing board members.”
According to the Alameda County Registrar of Voters’ Office, which would be tasked with ensuring enough signatures were gathered in a potential petition, 828 voters were registered in Sunol during the recall election in July.
Sunol Glen School administrative assistant Miki Whitfield clarified that Sunol residents will have up to 30 days from next Tuesday (Sept. 10), which is the school board meeting where Bobertz is scheduled to officially get sworn in as a provisional trustee.
She told the Pleasanton Weekly those residents have the right to do that if they didn’t agree with how the school board appointed Bobertz from among six applicants to come forward following the recall.
Bobertz told the Weekly over the weekend that he was not aware about the petition period and that he was “not privy to any steps that may have been taken for this to happen” — but regardless he said he hopes such a petition does not materialize in the next month or so.
“I would be disappointed if something like this were to happen,” Bobertz said. “It would be unfortunate to put the school community through something like this after the year we’ve had and with an upcoming election. It’s time to work on healing.”
Following the successful recalls of trustees Jergensen and Linda Hurley, Alameda County Office of Education Board President Cheryl Cook-Kallio appointed herself and Alameda County Area 4 Trustee Aisha Knowles as temporary trustees to serve alongside current Board President Peter (Ted) Romo on the three-member board.
Cook-Kallio took over Hurley’s seat, which is up for reelection this November, and Knowles took over Jergensen’s term, which is scheduled to end in 2026 — the provisional appointment was to replace Knowles’ seat.
The board underwent a process that ended up with six Sunol residents sending in their applications and five of them — one was absent — going up to the podium during the Aug. 20 meeting to interview for the seat. Romo and Cook-Kallio nominated Bobertz and as of now, he is set to be sworn in during the next board meeting on Sept. 10, following Knowles resignation.
But Whitfield said if people want to challenge the Bobertz appointment, they could petition to hold a special election because of district bylaws and California Education Code 5092.
Cook-Kallio told the Weekly there wasn’t any real specific reason as to why the petition caveat in the provisional appointment process was not brought up during the last board meeting.
“I don’t think there was (anything) nefarious about not having it in the meeting because … I thought it was common knowledge,” she said. “There was no reason for us to agendize it.”
Romo did mention that the school board could have decided to hold a special election if it did not choose a candidate during the Aug. 20 meeting, but Cook-Kallio further explained that education code and election law also allows for community members to call for a special election — not just the governing board.
According to Education Code 5092, a district also has within 10 days of the provisional appointment to post the notice Whitfield sent out on Friday.
Cook-Kallio said while the board never intended on holding a special election for the provisional seat, she has already heard people who might not have agreed with the appointment — or with the overall recall of Jergensen and Hurley — that are planning on petitioning for such an election in the near future.
As a trustee she said she was “profoundly concerned about the cost” of a special election — should there be one — because those financial costs would be put on the school itself. She also said she would be concerned about the toll another special election would have on the kids.
