Candidates for School Board, Santa Clara Unified School District, Trustee Area 2

(Vote for 2)

The candidates are: Christopher Stampolis, Albert Gonzalez, Ashish Mangla, and Jim VanPernis.

Ballot designations and ballot statements are from the Santa Clara County Registrar of Voters, as submitted by the candidates.

Warning: A political action committee is running a highly negative campaign in an attempt to keep the incumbents on the SCUSD board (DeYoung and Gonzalez) who helped exploit our schools to get the 49ers stadium Measure J ballot measure passed, and to install the husband of the superintendent's secretary (VanPernis) on our school board. 

Campaign finance disclosure forms now show that this PAC is primarily funded by people who worked to help pass Measure J, and spoke before the Oversight Board in favor of our redevelopment money going to the 49ers instead of our schools/city/county agencies.  This group is trying to tear down one qualified candidate who is a parent of young children in SCUSD in order to install the husband of the superintendent's secretary on our school board.

Christopher Stampolis - Governing Board Member, West Valley-Mission Community College District

Albert Gonzalez - Engineer/Father/Businessman

49ers 'Yes on J' Stadium Involvement: As a Santa Clara Unified School Board member, Albert Gonzales voted to endorse the stadium and allowed his name and photograph to be used repeatedly in 49ers stadium Yes on Measure J mailers. Using his role as a school board trustee, Albert Gonzalez helped the 49ers exploit our schools to pass Measure J.  The end result is that now our schools will lose many millions of dollars in property tax funding as redevelopment area dollars are siphoned off for the stadium instead of flowing to our schools/city/county/other public agencies.

As one letter writer to the newspaper put it: "The stadium campaign was a farce based on Save our Schools."

See how our schools were exploited to help the 49ers win the stadium ballot measure:

http://santaclaraplaysfair.org/index.php/component/content/article/35-whatownerswonttell/107-timelinejanfeb2010

http://santaclaraplaysfair.org/index.php/component/content/article/35-whatownerswonttell/108-timelinemarch2010

Ashish Mangla - Parent/Engineer/Technologist

(Note: Mr. Mangla did not submit a ballot statement to the Registrar of Voters.)

This summary is from Mr. Mangla's website:

Ashish Mangla was raised in India and moved to Silicon Valley. He has an MS in VLSI design, and worked as a IC design Specialist and Engineer for over 17 years. He is an independent candidate for the Santa Clara Unified School Board.  He also volunteers as City of Santa Clara Library Board Trustee. The Board of Library Trustees is primarily responsible for the establishment, acceptance and continued supervision of the public library program. Along with his wife Manisha who is also a proud teacher, they are parents of three children Abhishek, Aryan and Avni, all had been attending SCUSD schools.  Most bureaucratic people consider the business of education ... hiring and awarding contracts rather than books and SATs. I am running to change this imbalance and give people of Santa Clara a revitalized School administration and a focus on children of Santa Clara in the heart of Silicon Valley.

Jim VanPernis - Community Volunteer ​

Spouse Employment Concern: Mr. VanPernis's wife, Cathy VanPernis, is the secretary to the Superintendent of the Santa Clara Unified School District and to the SCUSD board of trustees.