BY EMILY MIBACH
Daily Post Staff Writer
There are four people vying for the three San Carlos School District board seats up for grabs Tuesday — two incumbents, a candidate who previously ran for the board and an Apple lawyer. Incumbents Carol Elliott and Kathleen Farley, who were both appointed in 2012 and elected in 2013, are running to keep their seats.
So Neil Layton, who sits on the city Parks, Recreation and Culture Commission and ran for a board seat two years ago, and Thomas Vigdal, a father of two and the Apple lawyer, are running to get a seat.
Elliott
Elliott has been on the board for the past five years and for 10 years before that was a volunteer with the district. Her children now attend college and Sequoia High School. Some of her goals on her Voter’s Edge profile include:
• Ensuring that the district’s eighth-graders are prepared for high school and beyond;
• Maintaining the district’s budget;
• Maintaining the district’s message in the strategic plan.
Elliott says on her Voter’s Edge profile that the board needs to have members who understand the longterm implications of some of the decisions that will be made during the facilities planning and moving forward with the strategic plan.
Elliott works as a family support services manager at Gatepath, a nonprofit group that assists disabled children and adults.
Farley
Farley has lived in San Carlos for the past 10 years with her husband and two sons, who are 14 and 11. On her Voter’s Edge profile Farley says that her three main goals are:
• Continuing to manage the district’s budget;
• Having a careful and inclusive selection of the district’s next superintendent;
• Completing the facilities master plan.
Farley works at Google and was previously a vice president for marketing at a video and photo editing company called SpotMixer.
Layton
Layton has two daughters who are 5 and 3. Some of his goals include:
• Moving forward with the district’s strategic plan and looking for a new superintendent who will help implement it;
• Making sure teachers are well trained in Common Core curriculum and using technology in the classroom.
Layton is also a prosecutor for Alameda County.
Vigdal
Vigdal has lived in San Carlos since 2010 with his wife and two children, a daughter who is in preschool and a son who is in first grade. He says on his website that following the 2016 presidential election, he felt the need to serve his community. Some of his goals as listed on his Voter’s Edge profile include:
• Picking a superintendent well suited for the district;
• Tightly managing the district’s budget;
• Developing a way to measure the progress of schools to make sure they keep up with education in the rest of the world.
Vigdal says on his website that as a child of a single mother, he learned that there are many families who don’t have the time to research and be up to date on every school issue, which is why he also wants to make sure the district hears from residents and communicates to them.
Board President Nicole Bergeron is not running for re-election.
