Emeryville Will Have a School Board Election

 No School Board Appointments This Year, Emeryville Voters Get to Decide

Emeryville residents will get a chance to vote in a school board election in November after Brian Donahue, Tattler editor and parent of a child enrolled at Emery, entered the race.  The other three, incumbents all, are Susan Donaldson, Brynnda Collins, and Regina Chagolla.  

The entry of Mr Donahue appears to have upset School Board plans to forgo an election and instead simply appoint (two) new members as they have done in the past.

The District has struggled to find people willing to run for school board and they have commonly relied on appointing new members instead of holding elections.  This go around too, Emery Unified was ready to forgo the election.  Ms Donaldson and Ms Collins had both expressed they did not want to run for re-election, enabling the whole Board to appoint their replacements.    

Mr Donahue, the only candidate with a child enrolled at Emery, registered to run for election just two days before the Alameda County Registrar of Voters deadline, forcing Ms Donaldson and Ms Collins to scramble to pull papers in time for their names to appear on the ballot.  Ms Collins got her name in just  minutes before the 5:00 pm shut off according to a Registrar employee.

The smallest school district in the East Bay, Emery Unified has about 700 students enrolled in an elementary, middle and high school all located at the Emeryville Center of Community Life.

With new ideas from one new voice against a unified incumbency, the election is set up to be a referendum on this School Board’s record.  How good of a job have the incumbents done?  Is Emery thriving?  Look to the Tattler for answers to those questions and for full campaign coverage including interviews of candidates in the coming weeks.