Tuesday, August 10, 2010

MDUSD candidate list

According to the CC Times political reporter, Lisa Vorderbrueggen and from her blog today, http://www.ibabuzz.com/politics/, only 3 candidates have thrown their names into the mix for MDUSD Board. Notably absent so far is Jeff Adams. Is he running or not?

Does anyone know the candidates (other than Linda Mayo of course)?

Linda Mayo (i); Roy Larkin, Lynne Dennler

Please share what you know.

16 comments:

  1. Lynne Dennler was my child's second grade teacher at PHE in the late 90's and then she left the school to go to an elem school in Concord.

    I hadn't heard anything about her since then, so her name is a bit of a surprise.

    I wonder what motivated her to run. Maybe she is finally retiring and wants to stay involved. Does anyone know if she is big in MDEA?

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  2. Yes I've only seen her described as a retired teacher and him a retired CFO.

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  3. Such a shame that more people are not running. Looks like the three of them will coast in and there will be no election.

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  4. What happened to Jeff Adams? He is no longer on the list of those who pulled papers.

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  5. Oakland is also having trouble getting school board candidates to run. Here's a comment that seems to apply to MDUSD too - http://www.contracostatimes.com/news/ci_15732833?

    "Steven Weinberg: It appears to me that it is not very hard to figure out why there are so few candidates for Oakland school board this year. First, it is a job that pays very little for many hours of work, not just the board and committee meetings, but appearances at many school functions each month. Second, board members receive almost no public praise for their service -- just look over the last few years' postings on this blog. Members are criticized for what they do, what they fail to do, and sometimes for things people only imagine they have done.

    Finally, we are in a time of fiscal austerity. Painful and unpopular cutbacks are going to have to be made. Is it surprising that people are not rushing to take on that burden?

    All four of the present candidates have given huge amounts of their time to improve the Oakland Unified School District, and they all deserve our thanks for that.

    Perhaps if we all spent as much time thanking our board members when we feel they have taken the right action as we do attacking them when they do something we don't agree with, it would be easier to find more citizens willing to run."

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  6. Are people genuinely surprised that more people don't want this awesome job?!

    With the abuse and negative speculation that is rampant in the paper and on the blogs, it is a wonder that there are even two people who decided to run.

    Many good intentioned people wouldn't touch this job with a ten foot pole. After all, what kind of positive impact can you make when all you are doing are cutting budgets and possibly closing schools.

    Let's hope that Lynne and Roy are a nice compliment to Gary, Sherry and Linda because it appears that's all we got.

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  7. I thought that there was another candidate (Brian Lawrence?), but remember that there is till tonight to file and maybe the papers will show up.

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  8. If tonight is the deadline, maybe Jeff Adams will still run.

    I am still of the mind that he is Dr. J.

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  9. According to the MDEA website, Lynne was not a school rep or on the MDEA Executive Board last year. Heaven forbid we have someone looking out for the teachers' interests. Aren't they the same - quality education for all our kids?

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  10. I spoke to a county elections department rep about an hour-and-a-half ago who told me Jeff Adams and Brian Lawrence have also filed papers.

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  11. HA. I knew that Jeff would. I do think he is Dr. J and is positioning himself to run.

    I wonder if his platform will be similar to Dr. J's or if he will now have to change it up so that it's not obvious.

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  12. Anon 3:51- I asked the question about MDEA because I wondered why a retired teacher would be interested in running for the board. It's a tough job!

    I thought she was a lovely lady when she was my kid's teacher and I can't wait to hear what she wants to do for the district.

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  13. If Dr. J is Jeff Adams I hope he's exposed. I wouldn't want to vote for anyone who has been hiding behind a mask for so long. Makes me think he won't have the guts to speak up for the kids in public. Total turnoff to me. No thanks. I guess if there is suspicion that he is Dr. J, he doesn't get my vote anyway.

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  14. Jeff Adams has stood up and publicly spoken at board meetings. I doubt he is Dr. J.

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  15. Hi folks,

    I'm Brian Lawrence and I am a candidate for the MDUSD board. Like many of you, I'm extremely concerned about the state of our schools. My oldest child is about to enter kindergarten in the district. I'm committed to strong, transparent fiscal oversight and providing our children with every available resource to ensure their success.

    I know the readers of this blog are passionate about improving MDUSD and I look forward to working with you.

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  16. Theresa is reporting that Jeff Adams is NOT Doctor J. I concur.
    Doctor J

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