Hearty congratulations to Mr. Gutierrez. He will be a good addition to the board. Best of luck to him.

Jose is a terrific person and a great choice for the people. And finally someone who truly can represent the voice of the under-represented and less privileged in this town. The city council should take note.

I hope he can handle the environment of our school board meetings.

Congratulations to Mr.Gutierrez I'm sure you'll be a breath of fresh air. Thank you for taking the challenge.
However as a Latina I'm sadden that the very board you'll be working with is labeling you and our Community .
With terms, underrepresented minority, less privileged, the fact is Mr. Gutuerrez see's his roll as he said last night. He's there for ALL our students. Isn't that good enough. Why the labels why put down families and base your vote because of a heritage. Mr. Guiterrez is qualified period.
Kids are kids you do them no service by labeling any child. Rich or poor. In fact those with too much privilege have social issues not always beneficial In development .
Again thank you Mr.Gutuerrrez for your time.

"One of the things she took into account in her decision, Wheeler said, was whether the appointee could fare well in a future election"

Why is this at all relevant?

I'm very worried that having the Hispanic view better represented will result in votes going against Stevenson. Is it too late to object to this appointment?

@pact
" worried better represented " maybe your program will be viewd and seen for what it is, divisive , self serving, and a big part of the kids being scattered throughout the district . Many of your groups comments in as much reflect entitlement.
Also the Hispanic has a name. It's Mr. Gutierrez .
What are you objecting to?

One thing's for sure, the photo of the new board member shows he's got swag!

Gutierrez is the poet, the artist, the advant-garde in comparison to the rest of the board that has been dragged down into the muck lately.

PACT Parent’s comment here seems unbelievable to me. This attitude is not representative of anything that I have ever seen at PACT. I seriously wonder if this person is just a troll, trying to drum up anti-pact sentiment and distract people from other issues, like how the school district unfortunately cannot afford to open another school, or how the lion’s share of the Measure G funds are being spent only on Castro.

People sometimes say PACT is exclusive because some families can’t commit to participating in their childrens’ classes. However, I’ve heard plenty of stories about families contributing in other ways, and I believe the school is not actually allowed to make participation a requirement. I have never heard of someone having to leave because they couldn’t meet the parent participation requirement. On the other hand, PACT has the worst facilities of any school in the district, and I haven’t heard of any measure G funds being allocated to improving the situation. So it seems hard to claim that it’s just for “privileged kids”. What seems “exclusive” to me is a school that you can only attend if you can afford to live in the wealthier parts of town. PACT welcomes students from all over.

Good grief. Now we have trolls making inflammatory comments trying to make people and schools look bad? PACT parent always listed Rex Manor as his neighborhood so the impostor didn't do a good job. I reported this to the voice staff.

I also happen to know PACT parent was excited about Mr. Gutierrez's appointment. While I have my own issues with some of his posts he's never shown signs of being a racist.

I really hope we can all start putting our energy towards making all MVWSD schools great rather than manufacturing in-fighting that consumes time and sets a bad example for our kids.

Let’s review "MV Parent's" posting:

“...how the lion's share of the Measure G funds are being spent only on Castro.”

This person is clearly disgruntled and resents schools that spend money on lower income and second language students.

“...I've heard plenty of stories about families contributing in other ways…”

Ah, you HEARD PLENTY OF STORIES. Stories. Meaningless.

“...I believe the school is not actually allowed to make participation a requirement.”

Oh, so true. That would be illegal. However, their application process has mandated parent participation FOR YEARS! Only recently was the school forced to clarify the voluntary nature of the “volunteer” hours that are expected from the parents on their website. Unfortunately, the school still sends out the registration form each year to parents that instructs them on mandatory things like vaccinations and then asks them to fill out their intended volunteer activities and donation. Nowhere does it spell out it is OPTIONAL.

“...PACT has the worst facilities of any school in the district..”

More complaining! Whisman would be happy to have a neighborhood school as bad as Stevenson. Poor babies!

“What seems "exclusive" to me is a school that you can only attend if you can afford to live in the wealthier parts of town."

And here is the resentment. They suck away funding from neighborhood schools (forcing any Whisman school to stay closed!) and then say that all of these neighborhood schools are “exclusive”???? Wow.

PACT is exclusive because not everyone can go there. There's a waitlist of like 60 kids for kinder alone! Our family has tried for 3 years to get a spot and still we are left out while many (maybe most?) of our neighbors get to go there because they won a lottery and we didn't. Every year I have to answer difficult questions from my children as to why their neighborhood friends get to go to school together and they can't go too. THAT is exclusive.

We'll see how Gutiérrez does and how the board evolves with his participation but my first impression is that this is a great add. I already feel more hope for the district than I have for several months.

@eric
An easy guess about Wheeler's concern of electability would be to provide an opportunity for a little more consistency on the board. That doesn't necessarily mean that Wheeler would be picking the one she would agree with more often, but someone who the district voters could get behind after getting to know them/getting used to them. Why lose/waste time and effort in picking someone who is more likely to be replaced by someone else who would need time to be brought up to speed? It was a pragmatic way to distinguish the two candidates she was "torn" between.

@MVWSD MOM
Relax. The PACT Parent of Gemello troll is a troll.

Great picture Mr. Gutierrez wonderful credentials.
I watched you last night you truly are a man of integrity . Who spoke from the heart, that's exactly what our kids need, strong leadership.

To mr-b,
Who are you the Voice answer man?!
You base your opinion on someones comment being a troll from what basis. Maybe your a troll!!!
Hey why don't you relax.

Hey, Mr B is anything but a troll. He is a SHILL! Big difference.

@ALL about name-jumper
"PACT Parent
a resident of Gemello
6 hours ago"

Who wrote the below comment NOT at all representative of Stevenson families attitudes...

"I'm very worried that having the Hispanic view better represented will result in votes going against Stevenson. Is it too late to object to this appointment?"

The comment above is NOT from me, NOR does it sound like ANYONE I know who actually is a Stevenson parent.

I have seen another instance of someone jumping my moniker, but I assure you I was NOT at home and thus NOT with my computer 6 hours ago.

I personally am quite fine with the selection the Board made.
I have heard NOBODY at Stevenson express any concerns about the selection.

Jose Gutierrez seems to be entirely authentic and honest and serious about doing the job properly and without any specific political or personal agendas like the other Board members have.

@eric of another community
You asked:
"One of the things she took into account in her decision, Wheeler said, was whether the appointee could fare well in a future election"

Why is this at all relevant?

It takes quite a bit of effort and even expense to bring a new Board member up to speed on the laws and processes and district issues, if an appointee will not be electable, then all that effort would be wasted.

Also, the relationships between members who feel the new guy is not going to be there for very long will be far more difficult to form than in the case where the members have a realistic expectation the new guy may well continue on the Board for years to come.

Not to mention the perspective of the public getting to know and trust one new guy after another is problematical for everyone.

I hope that was a useful answer.

why can't you people focus on the kids and stop attacking each other.
bad management is gone. so move forward.

@Troll
Shill for who exactly? Myself? Kids? Troll is troll.

@PACT parent of Rex Manor (not the Gemello troll)
Thanks for agreeing with me finally.

@MV Parent of Jackson Park

"...like how the school district unfortunately cannot afford to open another school,..."

I'm not convinced a financial brick wall exists to building some sort of school at Slater. The time-line may vary, but I think if the new Board can work together properly (yet to be seen), then construction money may be solvable. Operations will rely on a new parcel tax. Both will depend on size.

The total K-5 enrollment is another thing. We need to grow total K-5 enrollment quickly by our own directed efforts so that a 9th school can be created without endangering the existing 8 schools. I do feel this can be solved, but I don't see anyone serious about working on this key variable.

"...lion's share of the Measure G funds are being spent only on Castro..."

Any reasonable discussion about the costs of "Castro" construction MUST include the FACT that we are talking about TWO SEPARATE schools on the same site, just like Theuerkauf and Stevenson share the same site.

IF the "Castro site" is going to use up over $50million, that must be seen as $25million per school.

"People sometimes say PACT is exclusive because some families can't commit to participating in their childrens' classes."

It is a sad historical fact that literally hundreds of alternative style schools in California were given bad legal advice and poor inaccurate directions from their local school district leadership on what was and what was not legal. Individual schools don't usually employ experts on state laws to independently analyze the ever changing laws and keep the schools up to date and correct on the massive pile of laws which effect each school.

Hundreds of schools were in violation without knowing it. Until someone who really understands all these laws brings it to the attention of the relevant authorities who then analyzes the situation and makes a ruling and informs the individual districts, who then must notify the individual schools... who then must figure out how to comply and implement the required changes and find and purge all the outdated..... sheeeeesh, you get the point.

Yes, hundreds of California schools got bad information and it takes a long time to correct. But it's not some criminal conspiracy nor any sort of plot to scare away minorities or exclude the "less fortunate".

"...I've heard plenty of stories about families contributing in other ways,..."

Correct, for 20 years the PACT school (even when it was at Slater) made every effort to find something, anything, that each family felt they could offer in the way of support, no matter how small it may have been. The focus was always on parental involvement, NOT on the magnitude of that involvement. I have asked around quite a bit and as yet I have found NOBODY who even says they heard of any child who was asked to leave because their family offered zero support and zero involvement.

And perhaps just as important, there really is no log-book, no time-sheets, no tracking of any sort on what support is actually given by any specific family. If someone said they were going to do something and for some reason did not, then someone else would almost always step up and fill the void. We ask people to help, we don't police the issue.

"...PACT has the worst facilities of any school in the district,..."

Which is true, but I'm not aware of any families who looked around at the facilities and ran away. Families who believe in the PACT educational style are not really all that concerned about facility issues (as long as they are not safety issues of course).

"...I haven't heard of any measure G funds being allocated to improving the situation..."

Also true. The Board has carved out Measure G numbers for other schools, even made a special reserve account where millions will be deposited for the exclusive use of Slater, but not one dime for Stevenson. Not that I'm complaining, I'm just saying it's true.

"...PACT welcomes students from all over..."

Also true, and this year we have been able to expand to serve 390 kids from all over the district. That number was very tough to reach, we are now at a hard-limit of the buildings as they are. Not that we're complaining, just saying.

@pact parent

Hogwash. Wheeler has for years worked to avoid elections in order to keep the board of trustees a hand picked bunch - appointed not elected. Years of this culture was the direct cause of Nelsons election. Is it coincidence that the first contested election in ages for this board had such an inexplicable result?

@@ MV Parent of Rex Manor
You wrote:
"PACT is exclusive because not everyone can go there."

Our district has over 7,000 kids, "not everyone" can go to ANY individual school in our district.

Huff had to turn away kids who live within easy walking distance because a portion of the Whisman area was assigned to go to Huff.

Dual-Immersion (now called Mistral) had limitations on how many English-speakers are allowed, while they have made huge efforts to attract more Spanish-speakers into DI. (I guess it's OK to "exclude" certain people in favor of certain other people???)

Until PACT was moved to Stevenson, the district set a very low cap on how many kids were allowed into PACT when it was at Castro and even smaller cap when PACT was at Slater.

It was only when PACT came to Stevenson when enrollment was allowed by the district to expand. This year Stevenson has hit a very hard-limit with how many kids we can squeeze into our buildings at 390 total kids.

At the start of the 2014-15 school year, we had 533 kids who wanted into Stevenson, but we were only allowed to enroll 366 kids by the district.

The Stevenson school leadership can only propose how many kids we feel we are able support, it's the district who decides how many they will allow into Stevenson and it's the district which runs ALL the various school enrollment lotteries.

"There's a waitlist of like 60 kids for kinder alone!"

If it were not for the Stevenson leadership working very hard to accommodate another Kinder class, then you could have added another 25 left-out Kinders to that list. Stevenson does NOT set the enrollment limits, the district does.

"Our family has tried for 3 years to get a spot and still we are left out"

The biggest age group for new kids will always be Kinders, after that, the District-run lottery odds get much much lower each grade level up.

"while many (maybe most?) of our neighbors get to go there because they won a lottery and we didn't."

That is how the district set things up to work.
Stevenson has ZERO control over that.
PACT has NEVER had control over that.

"Every year I have to answer difficult questions from my children as to why their neighborhood friends get to go to school together and they can't go too."

Every year, every holiday, I have to explain to my daughter why she does not have any grandparents to visit, but all the other kids do. Why she can't have a doggy, why we can't just go to Disneyland on a whim Saturday afternoon. Why her friends have a bigger nicer house, why our formerly nice green lawn she loved to roll around on and play on is now dead and brown...

Not to mention when she asks me why I have so little hair and my car has so much rust...

"THAT is exclusive."

No, that's life.
Life's unfair, it always has been, it always will be.
There is NEVER enough of anything to go around to everyone equally who may wish for it.

Get used to it.

And perhaps do you child a favor, don't tell them that just because someone else has something they wish they had, that does NOT make the people who have that thing "evil", nor that anything improper was done to get it, nor that anything improper was done to "exclude" them from getting it.

I have no doubt your child posses something that my child would love to have, but can't have it. Like maybe a living grandparent for example?

@Eric
"@pact parent
"Hogwash. Wheeler has for years worked to avoid elections in order to keep the board of trustees a hand picked bunch - appointed not elected."

Eric, I think you may have over-interpreted my remarks.
I did not mean to defend Trustee Wheeler, I certainly have quite a few issues with her myself, I was simply trying to provide reasonable and proper reasons why it is relevant for a school Board to choose an electable temp appointee.

I do grant you that for this Board, we cannot count on reasonable motivations explaining anything, even if they seem to fit.

As far as the history of past temp appointees, I recall hearing about one such case several years ago, but I have not done the research to know how commonly this district finds itself in need of temp appointees to the Board. Temp Super's have also happened before, but I don't know the numbers.

I would certainly not be surprised to learn this has been common for this district this century, but I just have no information on that.

"Years of this culture was the direct cause of Nelsons election."

That theory sounds interesting, how did that work?
I was under the impression it had to do with how Nelson wrote his voter-bio and his unfortunate name similarity to Steven Olson. But do tell.

"Is it coincidence that the first contested election in ages for this board had such an inexplicable result?"

I was pretty sure that the past TWO elections were in fact contested. Both Nelson and Colodonato were elected in contested elections.

I was aware that in the past 15 years there have been some uncontested Board elections, but I don't know the numbers.

So, hogwash does not seem to apply here.

@ Pact Parent in Rex Manor

Thank you for so beautifully illustrating an insensitivity of the PACT community that even I didn't expect. I have just told of a very difficult situation for my family (my children) and all you have to say is "get over it, life isn't fair"?!

I was at least expecting a little sympathy. A "Sorry, we really wish we could take everyone. I can understand how hard that must be for your family. I wish we could do something about it...." Something constructive, something humane. But no, you just straight don't care.

What if we used this argument in other situations? You can't afford rent in Mountain View, too bad! That's life and life isn't fair. No need to donate to Second Harvest Food bank. If people can't afford food too bad, life isn't fair, get used to it.

Well, thanks so much "neighbor". Please enjoy the smug feeling you get every morning as you walk your children right past my house to school, a school that my children can't attend. Please enjoy socializing and picnicking with all the PACT families on Thursday afternoons at the playground. My children may be there too, but you won't talk to us, since we don't go to your school and all....

We don't get anywhere picking one school over another. PACT can't take more kids unless we expand Stevenson. If we expand Stevenson there is no Meas G money to rebuild Slater, unless we "dumbdown" work at the other schools. Some folks are still poking at various Trustees, even though we collectively elected the four who made the appointment. We had 11 applicants for a 15 month vacancy. We'll be lucky to get three candidates for two seats next fall. Fortunately the First Amendment guarantees our right to whine on the internet. Too bad is does not force more of us to be actually involved in civic affairs to the point of making a difference.

Does PACT discussion have to hijack seemingly every MVWSD thread? These threads are becoming unreadable for people interested in the main topic.

Reminder: The topic of this thread is the appointment of a new board member.

Voice Moderator: Doesn't it fall within your purview to try to keep these boards on-topic?

@ MV Parent of Rex Manor

"@ Pact Parent in Rex Manor
Thank you for so beautifully illustrating an insensitivity..."
"...I was at least expecting a little sympathy...."

That's quite an entitled attitude you have there.

If I had expressed "sympathy" for those parents who wished for their kids to get into Stevenson, then you'd accuse me of being condescending and I should keep my "sympathy" to myself. Admit it, you would have attacked no matter what I wrote.

Just for the record, my child plays with Theuerkauf kids almost every day and I have friendly relationships with several Theuerkauf parents as well. If you and your child are friendly and well-behaved that's what's important. We don't care what school your child attends or your income or race or your native language or...

NOBODY is "entitled" to get other people' "sympathy" just because there is something you could not give your child that someone else could. That makes the whole point of honest and appropriate sympathy meaningless.

There are countless things I have wished for my child which I could not provide to her, but I don't resent other people who were able to give their kids something I wanted for mine. I was just not raised that way. I was raised to focus on doing the best we can with what we have and not waste time and energy on putting the blame on others for our disappointments.

Failing to get your child into Stevenson does NOT mean your child is being denied an education. If that were the case, then you'd have a point, then you may reasonably expect people to be highly sympathetic. If you hate or are disappointed in your child's school, that's not the fault of anyone at Stevenson.

I NEVER feel "entitled" to have anyone offering their "sympathy" when they learn that my child has no siblings, no grandparents, no puppy, no pony or that we don't have the money to just jet off to Disneyland on a whim.

We didn't do anything improper to get what we have, we have no legitimate reason to apologize for what we have nor to impose our "sympathy" on others who don't have something we do have.

Nobody at Stevenson is responsible for the enrollment limits, nobody needs to apologize for this nor should anyone feel "entitled" to hear everyone who did get into Stevenson express "sympathy" or apologize to everyone who did not.

If you feel so "entitled", that's not about Stevenson, it's about you.

On topic and NOT related to Stevenson.

I had been very concerned about who would come forwards to apply for the open Board position.

I was delighted to see so many people apply and by the general qualifications of the applicants.

I was concerned over how our seriously dysfunctional Board would manage the process of choosing one applicant to join them on the Board.

What I saw was a rare and commendable cooperative effort by our elected Board to select the best applicant.

I was impressed by the choices of the interview questions our Board made.

I was concerned over the votes our Board members might cast, but I was impressed with the choices they did make at each step in the voting process.

What I know of the applicant that was chosen, Mr. Gutierrez, I like and I know of nothing I am concerned about with this choice our Board made.

I sincerely hope that Mr. Gutierrez is as happy about being appointed a year from now as he is today. I feel that he will prove himself worthy of being elected next year. I certainly hope so.

I have a desperate hope that Mr. Gutierrez can somehow manage to bring our normally dysfunctional Board together to be reasonable and productive and open-minded for a change. I hope he can inspire our Board to quickly discard past unproductive behaviors & agendas and start fresh.

We have such long list of historic and impactful challenges facing our Board today that I hope our Board will rally together and properly serve the public as their title of "Trust-ee" demands and the next 15 months can become a series of examples of good governance rather than more examples of what we have seen in the past.

I am happy with the selection our Board made, and I have hope for the attributes he will bring to our district.

Congratulations and welcome Mr. Jose Gutierrez. We needed you.

We in Los Altos have a problem similar to what you and your school is doing to MSWSD. Our charter school outperforms others (albeit by a slim margin) simply by having a critical mass of students from the wealthiest part of LASD. Since inception, the charter gave an enrollment preference to a very narrow portion of our zipcode. Not surprisingly, the kids of the wealthiest of parents tend to score better than the kids of the less affluent. (Only after a series of court losses, did the board of supervisors put down their foot and make them open the enrollment by phasing out the rich-kids-only enrollment preference.)

This is called "creaming". Now that the charter school has this critical mass of top students and has garnered the top scores, it is no wonder that there is a long wait-list to get in. Sound familiar? The PACT school/program by it's very nature of requiring a large investment from parents of time and/or money has attracted the parents who have always been better able to get their kids the best education available. Only parents who go through the special application effort and pledge the hours and/or money to enroll have a chance to get in, so OF COURSE the students in that school/program score better.

It has little to do with the "excellence" of the program or staff, but simply the fact that the kids at Stevenson simply do not represent the demographic of the other schools. Perhaps you can call this "creaming" unintentional, but the effect is the same. Please do not allow this PACT school to fester and grow. My advice is to phase it back to a PROGRAM where it belongs and devote that cost savings to help re-launch Slater.

By the way, anyone notice the timing of events? Slater closes due to funding and the neighborhood is promised it will re-open when the financial situation improves. Some time passes and the PACT PROGRAM sneaks it's way to the status of a school! Hey, wait! Shouldn't Slater have been re-opened instead???

From my observations, this is what the PACT parents are so concerned about. People will wake up to the fact that they have segregated themselves at the expense of Slater.

Wake up!

@@Pact Parent of another community

Were you the person who tried to fake a racist rant under my moniker?
That would explain your latest post.

"We in Los Altos have a problem similar to what you and your school is..."

No, actually your Charter school is not at all like what PACT ever was.
The PACT school officially became a school in it's own right in 2001.
The rules PACT followed were always set, reviewed, approved by the district.
For 20 years anyone could have challenged the rules to the School Board.
When the district informed Stevenson to change the rules, we did.
PACT never excluded anyone from anywhere in the district.
The district always ran the enrollment lottery and set the lottery rules.
Test scores? Explain all the kids very near Huff who go to Stevenson?

You have almost all your facts wrong.

These PACT-bashers believe that the only way to get enough enrollment to operate a new Slater school is to force PACT kids into the new Slater. So, they attack PACT as an excuse to close Stevenson. When (or IF) the locals send enough of their kids to the new Slater to keep the school open by themselves, they will again kick-out the PACT kids (a 4th forced move for PACT kids).
That's what it's all about and always has been about.

The Slater advocates also tried to steal away the D.I. school from Castro as an alternative way to boost head-count at a new Slater.

The Slater location itself is terrible for people trying to park or go in/out from other areas. The difficulty of commuting there, the poor access, the tiny number of parking spaces, no on-street parking, etc...

Most families prefer traditional educational styles, even among the wealthy, SOME families believe the style of education at Stevenson is a better fit for their kids personalities and learning styles.

That's all there is to it.

Same for Dual-Immersion (Mistral), some families believe in dual-language immersion style of education and they choose the Mistral school.

So tired of this pact bickering. Glad they hired someone...maybe the pactsters and anti-pactsters will now go away.

My question is to Ms. Wheeler
It sounds like you picked and wanted an Hispanic as if to meet a quota. Are you willing to stand by him if he failed.
. You showed your true colors Ms. Wheeler. Our children don't need representation by race. Integrity, respect for all goes a long way. Mr. Gutierrez will do great even if you can't spell his name correctly.

After attending the meeting, I am surprised by the choice based purely on personal preferences. Not only Wheeler, but Nelson and Lambert based their choice solely on personal characteristics ( race, gender, geographic location, kids in school, etc. ) and never mentioned skill, experience or training. Shocking. This is not the fault of Mr. Gutierrez, but he is ill equipped to be a trustee. He will not be able to deal with Nelson and Coladnado. I believe the trustees think he will have a better chance of being elected as an incumbent next Fall.

Directly ON topic
@both Parents non and Bibb

As I have said before, I have plenty of issues with each of our elected Board members and I am not trying to defend Trustee Wheeler.

I would like to point out that Mr. Gutierrez did get 3 votes in the first round of voting, only Trustee Nelson did not vote for Mr. Gutierrez in that first round. None of the other candidates, not even Lisa Garcia ever got 3 votes. In the final round, Trustee Nelson switched his vote in favor of Mr. Gutierrez and only Trustee Colodonato voted against him. So, at various points in the process all of the elected Trustees did cast votes for Mr. Gutierrez.

I would also like to point out that Trustee Wheeler was deeply torn in the end, it was clear on her face and in her voice. Lisa Garcia was her other well-qualified choice.

Our 4 elected Board members are politicians (some lawyers) with years of experience playing politics as usual and knowing well how to push the buttons and pull the levers of power to suit their agendas.

The huge thing they lack, which we desperately need them to have, has to do with the human factors.

I have no reason to think Trustee Gutierrez lacks the intelligence or skills or drive to come up to speed on the procedural side of the job, my impression of him suggest he is fully capable of learning the ropes.

What Trustee Gutierrez brings to the table are exactly those positive human attributes the rest of the Board either never had, or have forgotten about or allowed to badly atrophy over the years in the heat of their political battles focused on "winning at all costs" on their agendas.

"Winning at all costs" is a perfectly acceptable attitude when it comes to citizen advocates/activists, but not remotely acceptable for elected officials.

Just the fact that Trustee Gutierrez comes into our Board with a clean slate, no baggage, no grudges, and as far as I can tell, no personal or political agendas, that alone offers the rest of the Board a unique opportunity to clean their slates, to begin again and this time try to do their jobs as their title demands:

"TRUST-ee"

My impression is that if Mr. Gutierrez doubted his ability to do the job, his integrity would not have allow him to apply.

We all may be wrong of course, but only time will tell.

I just think we all should give Trustee Gutierrez the benefit of any doubts people may have and let him show us what he is capable of and what positive differences his influence may have on the other Board members.

Fair enough?