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ALBANY--With nearly three-quarters of the votes counted, the Albany School Board was looking late tonight as though it may be facing a fractious future. Current board president David Farrell is leading, followed by his most outspoken opponent, Miriam Walden, who organized a slate of three challengers to overthrow the current leadership. Updated Nov. 6, 12:00 am
Slate member Michael Barnes holds a slight lead for third place, which would give him the last available seat and the slate a majority of votes on the five-member board.
A third slate member, Sherri Moradi, was guaranteed a board seat because her bid for a two-year term was uncontested.
"I'm pleased I'm in the lead," said Farrell. "Over the next few weeks, we'll all shake hands and agree to move ahead for the good of the schools."
Walden declined to comment until the count is completed.
Incumbent Jim Lindsay, who is barely trailing Barnes, said he's optimistic. "We'll see what happens. It's very close. I'm mostly relieved the campaigning is over -- I'd prefer to win, but if I don't, I'll just have a lot of time," he said.
Owen H. Jones, an Oakland elementary school teacher and former board member, is in fifth place, but the tally is still close.
The slate is Albany's first. The three challengers say the current board disregarded teachers' concerns during contract negotiations two years ago and mismanaged the budget, leading to a $1.5 million shortfall. Albany Teachers Association endorsed the three candidates, and that may have influenced voters.
"I did select the two candidates endorsed by the teachers," said Barbara Williamson, 52, a midwife with a child at Albany Middle School, who cast her vote at City Hall.
Farrell said incumbents have led the district out of difficult times. He points to two new schools, consistently high test scores, a new superintendent and a newly balanced budget as evidence.
More than one third of Albany households include children under the age of 18, and the top-ranking schools are the pride of the town.
The board has been the focus of public scrutiny ever since contentious teacher contract negotiations split the town two years ago. Teachers secured an 18 percent raise, but the talks were heated and the teachers' union threatened to strike.
If voters pick both Barnes and Walden, the slate will constitute a majority on the five-member board. Such a majority could radically change the tone of contract negotiations with the teachers' union, scheduled to take place this spring.
The nasty tenor of the contract talks two years ago has continued throughout the race, with incumbents hurling allegations of illegal donations and community members complaining of inappropriate campaigning by teachers who support the slate.
"This is not our small-town Albany election," Farrell said last week. "I've noticed a real difference." Farrell filed a complaint with City Attorney Robert Zweben over a $2000 campaign contribution to the slate from the California Teachers Association, the statewide organization that represents local teachers' unions.
Farrell said he believes the donation violates city code, but Zweben said the code might not apply to school board elections.
Slate leader Miriam Walden said election attorneys need to review the matter to determine if any law has been broken. Barnes, in an email discussion group said, "Mr. Farrell seems to confuse legal and political issues in a way that I find disappointing."
The issue remains unsettled.
The slate candidates said they decided to run after forming a committee to support teachers during the difficult contract negotiations. "The disrespect for teacher's perspective and lack of collaboration was endemic," said Walden of board members. "It was not just refusing to give them a raise."
Walden, 34, the executive director of Just Economics, Inc., a financial consultant to non-profit organizations, said she has the experience the board needs to fix its budget.
Moradi, who teaches third grade at St. Cornelius, a parochial school in Richmond, said she brings the teacher's perspective to the board. Barnes, a science writer for the University of California who once worked as a budget analyst for the state of Washington, also emphasized his fiscal knowledge.
Farrell, 56, an archivist at UC Berkeley's Bancroft Library, and current board president, said he's volunteered on committees to help the school district ever since his son started kindergarten in the district 13 years ago. He has said that he believes the school board needs experienced members to keep the district on the path to fiscal recovery.
Lindsay, 45, the chief technical officer of a software company called Voting Solutions and a state-certified mediator, has two children in Albany schools. He was appointed to the board in August 2000, after member Owen T. Jones resigned. Lindsay has said he'll use his experience as a mediator to make sure all sides are heard on controversial topics.
Jones, 57, a public school teacher in Oakland, served on the board from 1996 to 2000. In his campaign materials, which contained grammatical errors and misspelled words, Jones pointed to his oversight, as a board member, of the construction of the new middle school and high school in the district. Jones has said that his service on the Oakland School District Budget Committee and his work a prison job counselor qualify him to be a school board member.
The new board, which will work under advice from Carol Berg, a fiscal advisor appointed by Alameda County in the spring of 2002, must prove the district's budget is balanced or face a state takeover as early as next fall. The teacher's contract will expire this spring and a new one must be agreed on by July. With the state budget deficit topping 23 billion this year and the district still grappling with its own budget cuts, this round of negotiations will occur in an even worse financial climate than those of 2000.