Melissa Baten Caswell is endorsed by every board Trustee in Area 1 except for 2. Grace Mah has the backing of several pro-charter school organizations. It's pretty clear who to vote for if you believe in a strong public school system.

@kehlar I am a school board member in SCCBOE Trustee Area #1 and I believe in a strong public school system. I am supporting Grace Mah for re-election. Her long, deep experience in BOE work, especially her championing high quality early childood education, convince me that she is the best person for this job. Grace is a proponent of success for all children.

@Ellen, The article and the first post above suggests your candidate (the incumbent) is more open to charter schools than the challenger - a long-time Palo Alto school board member. Do you have any information about that alleged difference between the candidates? Also, in a letter online here in the Voice, your school board president, Tamara Wilson, claims "candidates" (plural) for your school board - other than the 3 she endorses - have been providing "misinformation" somewhere online. The two candidates she does not endorse and so accuses are (1) Manny Velasco who left the district's employ last January and (2) former board member Christopher Chiang. Posting on Ms. Wilson's letter, I asked what "misinformation" had been presented by candidate Christopher Chiang. Tamara Wilson has provided no response. Maybe you, Ellen, will shed some light on the matter.

Mr. Sangeeth Peruri (mentioned) and friends are running the challenger's campaign. For those who know this group, they are more than just critics of Bullis Charter School.

For many years they have campaigned to stir up hate in the community to marginalize BCS, using the most unseemly methods.

For all the candidate's denials, they couldn't possibly be blind to what this group does. The candidate's statements hint that BCS should be blamed for the troubles in LASD. The candidate would be quite aware of who butters their bread and what they must do to to pay for it.

BCS's charter renewal is in 2021, not 2022 as stated in the article. These choices are relevant now.

@Barry Austin: stop demonizing Sangeeth Peruri. Mr. Peruri doesn’t hate BCS, he just wants to protect LASD from the worst excesses of BCS, which continues to try to shut down and take over an award-winning LASD neighborhood school. Would you like to be demonized for your advocacy for BCS? Does your support of BCS make you an “LASD hater”? It stirs up hate in the community to personalize attacks on people who disagree with you, and I urge you to stop.

Grace Mah received:
79% ($242,000) from Out-of-County PACs, mostly for pro-charter groups.

LET THAT SINK IN PEOPLE - 79%!!

Only 14% from locals.

That is all you need to know.

At the end of the day, who do YOU think Mah will be beholden to? Take a wild guess.

We don't want Bullis taking over the whole county. They can stay in Los Altos. The parents fought back Bullis' power grab in Mountain View, but they will be back, they said.

MV parents, beware!! They have Mah's complete backing. Vote Mah and her charter PAC money out while you have the chance!

Charter Schools in Santa Clara County

SCBOE Chartered 11,000+ students in 21 schools
State Board of Education 4 Schools ~500 Students
(this is what happens when the county turns down a Charter School,
which it started to do recently)
District Chartered >10,000 students in 40 schools

So, over 20,000 charter school students in Santa Clara County.

Let that sink in People.

Grace Mah is the best candidate. This has nothing to do with Bullis Charter school except the local buckets of money spend in a vendetta against Bullis. THAT'S why charter school supporters are coming in to support Grace Mah--the fact that idiots are saying things like Bullis being the only charter school in the County.

Oh, another thing. These privileged Los Altos parents giving all the funds directed at stomping on charters are clearly what motivated charter school defenders to support Grace Mah. One of the worst things those uninformed Los Altos residents did was the create a highly biased web site with anti charter rhetoric. Charter supporters can't leave that alone, because it's false. They have to become involved. The same $10,000 donors are the ones who run the web site and support the parochial views of charters based on their lofty perception of themselves.