BY EMILY MIBACH
Daily Post Staff Writer
San Carlos residents this year have the rare occurrence of voting for every single member of the San Carlos School District’s 5-member school board.
There are normally only two or three seats open at a time at each election, but a slew of resignations in the past few years have landed the school board in this position. So this year, voters will see the San Carlos School Board twice on their ballot.
The first section will allow voters to vote for three candidates who will serve four-year terms. Incumbent Neil Layton, appointed incumbents Ben Kornell and Sarah Cassanego and teacher Kit Waffle are in that competition.
In the second section — detailed farther down in this story — voters will choose two candidates who will serve two-year terms. Those candidates are attorney Sarah Kinahan, Rachel Lassman, Tracy Park, David Pollack and Jessica Lynn Rowe. Here is a look at the candidates for the four-year seat.
Waffle’s child graduated from Central Middle School last year and now attends Sequoia. Waffle, who is nonbinary and queer, has worked with families and students who have experienced discrimination at district schools and wants to “fight for fair, inclusive and affirming policies in the district.” A weakness within the district they see is the current English curriculum being ineffective for English Language Learners and students with reading disabilities, so they’d like to review the district’s curriculum.
Kornell is a social impact investor, specializing in education technology, or edtech, and was appointed to the board in May 2021. He has two children in the district. He says in the year since he’s joined the board, the district has gone from “survival mode to thriving” by hiring a new superintendent, signing a new contract with the unions after strife within the district and while other districts are seeing declining enrollment, San Carlos’ is increasing.
Layton is a prosecutor for the Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office. He was elected to the board in 2017. He has two children in the district. Layton says he is running for re-election to finish the work he started, to update the district’s strategic and facilities plans. He is the only candidate who was on the school board pre-pandemic. He wants to improve some of the district’s “gaps,” which includes improving education for English Language Learners and students with disabilities.
Cassanego was appointed to the board in October 2020. She is a program manager at Sustainable San Mateo County and has two children who go to school in the district.
On her website, Cassanego says her priorities include “continuing to keep students at the center of every decision,” maintaining strong financial reserves and evaluating how board decisions impact marginalized students and how to close the district’s achievement gaps.
All three incumbents are endorsed by the county’s Democratic Party.
Now here’s is a look at the five candidates running for the two two-year seats.
The five candidates are Sarah Kinahan, Rachel Lassman, Tracy Park, David Pollack and Jessica Lynn Rowe.
Kinahan works in the county’s office of education’s child care council and she has children who attend Arroyo and Central schools. She says she’s eager to use her work experience to help San Carlos students. During the Great Recession, Kinahan led the county’s Child Care Coordinating Council as executive director, overseeing a budget of $10 million and responsible for setting the agency’s agenda. She’s helped develop additional child care spaces and in her current job examines public policy, data and advocacy to improve early childhood education systems in the county. Her priorities include implementing pre-kindergarten throughout the district. Kinahan is endorsed by the county’s Democratic Party.
Lassman is a self-published author of a series of rhyming, educational children’s books, according to her LinkedIn. She did not return the Post’s candidate questionnaire. She says on her website that her experience as a teacher and soccer coach gives her the unique skills needed for the school board. “Rachel feels strongly about reinstating and promoting a back-to-basics, academic education that ensures our children will learn, with proficiency, the basic subjects of reading, grammar, science, math, history and civics,” she says on her website. Among her priorities is making sure students are allowed to participate in activities “without discrimination based on medical choices. She is the only candidate endorsed by the county’s Republican Party.
Park is a substitute teacher whose children attend Mariposa Upper Elementary and Tierra Linda Middle School. Her background is in strategy, operations and financial planning, including education. She used to work for Teach for America and Teach for All where at both she guided the two nonprofits through growth. Park has also been asking district families what weaknesses they see in the district, she’s heard displeasure about the district’s reading curriculum and others feel like their children are not challenged enough. She wants to find out just how pervasive some of these issues are and then find “reasonable solutions” to address the biggest problems. Park is endorsed by the county’s Democratic Party.
Pollack is a long-term substitute for the Sequoia Union High School District and a nonprofit fundraising consultant. He also ran for San Mateo County Assessor-County Clerk-Recorder and Elections Officer. His children attend Brittan Acres, San Carlos Charter Learning Center and Central Middle School. He says a weakness of the current board is that it is “extremely isolated” and doesn’t benefit from working with other districts or the county’s school boards association, nor does it interact with the city, playing a “passive/reactive” role with the city. Part of that reason is because most of the board is appointed.
Rowe is an attorney who specializes in estate planning and probate litigation. In 2020, she worked on the successful campaign to increase the district’s parcel tax from $246.60 to $334.60 per parcel for eight years. Rowe did not return the Post’s candidate questionnaire.
Lassman does not have children and is endorsed only by people outside of San Carlos, many of whom are typical MAGAs trying to establish their presence at the most grass-roots levels of government. I don’t see why she would run other that to cause disruption.
Thanks “Sandy Beach,” now I know who to vote for. I have two kids in the San Carlos schools and I’m tired of hearing them talk about the liberal crap they’re being force-fed in class. “Sandy,” if that’s really your name, your side has had its turn, now we need to try something different. I don’t want left-wing or right-wing politics preached in elementary school classes.
“Liberal crap” like empathy and equality for all? Things that the right know nothing about.
Lassman is a right wing wacko, I know her personally. She is pro critical race theory, she is against ethnic studies and comprehensive sexual education, she is pro guns, she is anti BLM, pro Trump, almost bordering QAnon. Her campaign brochure says nothing about what she stands for, just cliché. No wonder she did not answer the questionnaire!