With the period for candidates to file to run for office now officially closed, it's an uncontested race to serve on the Mountain View Whisman School District's board. Only two candidates qualified to run for the pair of seats that are coming open this November.

Incumbent Devon Conley and former trustee Bill Lambert are the only two candidates running, as of the Wednesday, Aug. 17, filing deadline. Current trustee Ellen Wheeler announced last month that she isn't running for another term.

There was a third potential candidate, Ling Wang, who filed paperwork this month to run, but later withdrew, records from the Santa Clara County Registrar of Voters show.

When a race is uncontested, no election is held unless a petition signed by 50 voters or 10% of the voters in a district, whichever is fewer, is submitted to the Registrar of Voters by Aug. 17.

First elected in 2018, Conley said in an interview last month that one of her policy priorities in a second term would be focusing on helping students recover from the pandemic, both academically and in terms of their mental health.

"Every day I wake up thinking about the work that we still have to do," Conley said, adding that it will take a long term investment to help students catch up.

Lambert, who served from 2012-2016, said he was motivated to run for the board by all of the changes and challenges he sees on the horizon for the city. As Mountain View grows and builds more housing, Lambert said that raises questions about how the school district will fund needed expansions to serve more students. In recent years, Lambert said that he has met with city staff and officials to better understand the city's perspective.

"I feel I'm in a perfect situation, with my knowledge base that I've worked hard at – a lot of late night meetings – to help the process and help Mountain View," Lambert said.