Gilroy woman Jane Howard preserves seat on SCCOE board
Gilroy – Jane Howard will keep her seat on the board for Santa Clara County’s Office of Education, in a landslide win against San Jose candidate Esau Herrera.
Howard won 52.4 percent of the votes, Herrera took 30.3 percent and John Leyba, who withdrew from the race, still earned 15.57 percent of the votes with 181 precincts of 215 reporting.
Howard, 54, was appointed to the board 16 months ago when trustee Don Kruse stepped down because of health reasons. She said she decided to run for the seat to be the a voice for South County schools and because she felt she was making a difference on the board.
“Obviously, I’ll be delighted to win, but also honored to represent this area,” Howard said before leaving town Tuesday to celebrate her 25th wedding anniversary. “I think it’s so important that we continue to have a voice at the county level. Our area has unique needs that are very different from the needs of city schools, and I’ll be happy to have the opportunity to voice those needs.”
The county board has different responsibilities from local school boards, including approval of charter school applications, teacher credentials, payroll preparation and overseeing all county-run alternative schools.
“Initially, I’m surprised by those numbers, but Jane is the incumbent and that trustee area is designed to have more of a South County voice, so I suppose that’s understandable,” Herrera said. “She’s an individual with experience, who will do very well; She’ll be good for the South County.”
Herrera said that after more than 20 years of being active in education, he’ll continue to stay involved with education projects such as youth groups and Latino youth motivation conferences.
Now that Howard will have a full four-year term, she said she hopes to help with the board’s public relations, deal with challenges of students learning English in school and focus on future training for teachers.
Both candidates vying for the board’s Area 7 seat, which encompasses the South County, were well qualified. Howard completed a term on the Gilroy Unified School District in 2000 before being appointed to the county board in 2005. She was president of the Leadership Gilroy Education Foundation and was named Woman of the Year by the Gilroy Chamber of Commerce in 1999.
Herrera is a lawyer in San Jose who has served on Alum Rock Union Elementary School District Board for 15 years and another five on the Eastside Union High School District, both in San Jose.
“The county board race was important to me because I know one of the people running – Jane,” said Diane Miller, who voted at Brownell Academy. “I always think it’s good when you know someone you’re voting for. I’ll be happy if she wins.”
