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UPDATE: As of Monday, Nov. 9, vote totals for newcomers Bronwyn Alexander and Jenny Varghese Bloom indicate that they have won the two seats on the Ravenswood City School District Board of Education. The election count released at 4:30 p.m. by the San Mateo County Assessor and Chief Elections Officer showed Alexander has maintained her first-place finish with 3,133 votes, or 23.2% of the votes counted; Varghese Bloom has secured second with 2,928 votes, or 21.7%. In third place, incumbent Marielena Gaona Mendoza has 1,899 votes, or 14% of the votes. Only 9% of the county’s ballots remain to be counted, and Gaona Mendoza would have to win almost all of the outstanding ballots — and Varghese Bloom almost none — for Gaona Mendoza to move into the No. 2 slot. The next results update will be released on Wednesday, Nov. 11, at 4:30 p.m.
Two newcomers, Bronwyn Alexander and Jenny Varghese Bloom, are leading the race for two open seats on the Ravenswood City School District Board of Education.
Alexander, a former Belle Haven Elementary School teacher, has held the top spot since the first unofficial results were released Tuesday night, with 24% of the vote (2,194 votes). Varghese Bloom, a college admissions counselor and district parent, is close behind, trailing by only 254 votes.
Trustee Marielena Gaona Mendoza, who’s running for a second term, is in third place with 14% of the vote — 669 votes behind Varghese Bloom. Gaona Mendoza’s seat is up for grabs as well as Sharifa Wilson’s, who is not running for reelection after 12 years on the board.
Julian Alberto Garcia, a former Ravenswood employee who ran unsuccessfully in the last school board election, pulled into fourth place overnight with 1,165 votes. He’s followed closely by labor manager Joel Rivera (1,136 votes), East Palo Alto native and Emerson Collective employee Mele K. Latu (1,111 votes) and Zeb Feldman (330 votes).
The San Mateo County chief elections officer warns that election night results “may be significantly different from the final count.” Preliminary results do note include vote-by-mail ballots received in the mail after Oct. 28, dropped off at vote centers or drop boxes after Oct. 28 or conditional voter registration or provisional ballots.
Alexander, a longtime teacher who left her job at Belle Haven in Menlo Park last year so she could run for a school board seat in this election, said she’s cautiously optimistic about the early results. She believes the issues she campaigned on, including reversing Ravenswood’s declining enrollment and increasing teacher pay, resonated with voters.
“I think it’s coming down to what the candidates were saying that addressed what the community was feeling,” she said.
Varghese Bloom, whose daughter is a Ravenswood kindergartener and son attends the district’s preschool, said in a previous interview that her priorities, if elected, include focusing on better preparing Ravenswood students for high school — an area she knows well through her work as a college counselor at Insight Education — and listening to input from parents, students and teachers.
On Tuesday night, she also remained “hopefully optimistic” with about half of the ballots counted.
“I’m proud of the campaign I’ve been able to run with the support of my neighbors, friends, and family,” she said. “I believe my platform is a positive contribution to the furthering of Ravenswood schools. No matter what the outcome (is), I will be involved in (the) Ravenswood School District as a parent, and I hope that I will be a voice on the board.”
Gaona Mendoza, a special education teacher was first elected in 2016, has said she wants to continue the district’s upward trajectory, particularly with new leadership in place. She did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The recent, sudden resignation of trustee Stephanie Fitch halfway through her first term means that there will be a third, new face on the dais this winter. The board voted last week to proceed with making a provisional appointment to replace Fitch.
This story will be updated as more results come in.
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