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Sunol Glen Unified School District’s temporary Board of Trustees has appointed Chris Bobertz, a Sunol resident and parent who ran for the school board in 2022, to fill the empty board seat left by recalled trustee Ryan Jergensen.
As noted in the Aug. 20 board meeting, Bobertz will step in starting on Sept. 10 and will serve on the board until 2026, which is when Jergensen’s term was set to end before he was recalled by a majority of voters on July 2.
“The appointment means a ton to me. Not only as we look toward the future of the school but also because of the support I’ve experienced once my application was made known and the word has gotten around a bit,” Bobertz told the Weekly on Friday.
“I look forward to being able to refocus on the school and the positive impact to the school community, but I’m also looking to foster some positivity and hope for the community to be able to look back in two years and say, ‘Yeah, I’m glad we tagged Chris in,'” he added.
Board President Peter (Ted) Romo led the interview process of the five candidates for the seat during last week’s board meeting — the board originally received a sixth candidate application from James Lowder, another resident who lost in the 2022 election, but he was not present at the hearing.
After asking each candidate questions and hearing closing statements, Romo said his top pick was Bobertz because of his dedication to the school, the town and all of the people who make up the entire Sunol Glen community — even if they might not live in Sunol.
“The thing that stands out with Chris is … his focus on the school and all its aspects and his role on the (Citizens Bond Oversight Committee),” Romo said. “The committee oversees the use and spending of bond money being used to repair the school.
Bobertz has been a Sunol resident for over six years and actually started off as a commuter parent when his family lived in Fremont. He said before moving to Sunol for the town and school, he understood what it was like to be a commuter parent, which is why he said he understands the importance of having all stakeholders involved, even if they don’t have a vote on the school board.
He also said during his interview that he wants to shift the focus back on the students and showing support for not just them, but teachers and staff as well — especially following a long year and a half of division in the community.
“Fortunately, I’m not naive to everything the school community and Sunol has been through,” Bobertz told the Weekly. “I look forward to listening, learning and working together with the board and the new superintendent (Mrs. Galletti) so we can do the absolute best we can by the Sunol Glen.”
Bobertz will be replacing Alameda County Area 4 Trustee Aisha Knowles, who had been tapped to temporarily serve in the empty seat to help ensure the three-member board would have a quorum.
Sunol Glen Superintendent-Principal Shay Galletti told the Weekly the school is ensuring it is following the proper steps regarding Bobertz’s appointment and that they are currently “waiting for Aisha Knowles’ formal resignation, which will be sent to us by the county superintendent.”
Alameda County Office of Education Board President Cheryl Cook-Kallio, who appointed herself and Knowles to the Sunol school board following the recall election certification, said during the meeting that as a person who has been in education for over 40 years, she also thought Bobertz was the top candidate for the two-year-plus term.
“Chris Bobertz is absolutely rooted in this community. He knows the teachers, he knows the kids,” Cook-Kallio said. “I get the impression that his heart and soul is in the dirt, it’s outside this door.”
“I kind of racked my brain around the qualities I thought … made a good board member,” she added. “In my opinion it’s that person whose DNA is in the dirt, under the trees and in the garden and with the kids and with the teachers.”
Cook-Kallio is filling recalled trustee Linda Hurley’s seat until the Nov. 5 election — where Jergensen is running for a trustee position once again but this time against Erin Choin, a Sunol resident, parent and advocate of the recall campaign. (Hurley defeated Bobertz in a tight contest for a two-year short term on the board in the November 2022 election.)
Jergensen spoke a few times during the appointment process and mainly wanted the temporary board to consider appointing someone who might be more representative of the group of voters in Sunol who voted against the recall efforts. Bobertz had been very outspoken about his support of the recall and was also on the United for Sunol Glen recall campaign.
“It would be great to have all of the community represented and not just one viewpoint,” Jergensen said. “I would recommend that the board try to look at candidates and … try to get a diversity of opinion, diversity of representation for our community.
One of the candidates who is more in line with the anti-recall voters was Thomas Knutsen.
A Sunol resident and an attorney from the Dublin-based Knutsen Law Offices, Knutsen represented Jergensen and Hurley when the two former trustees were a part of a lawsuit that tried to get the Alameda County Registrar of Voters’ Office to stop the recall process after alleging election code errors.
He told the board last week during his interview time that the school lacks leadership and that he wanted to serve as a representative of nearly half of the residents who were against the recall.
“In terms of the larger community I think I come from the 49% (of residents who voted no on the recall) that have at some point in time felt disenfranchised by the manner in which things played out,” Knutsen said. “That section of the community needs to feel that they are represented.”
However, while most of the other candidates breezed through the question-and-answer portion of the interview, Knutsen hit a wall with the board on his stance regarding Sunol Glen parents who don’t live in the town. He said he believes Sunol residents and taxpayers — who might not even have students in the school — should be the board’s main concern, not parents who commute from other cities.
“Your primary responsibility is not to those parents who chose to bring their children to this school because it’s a quality school,” Knutsen said. “Your primary obligation is to the residents of this community and the taxpayer … if you provide a quality education to those residents of Sunol who send their children here, you’ve done your job.”
However, Cook-Kallio and Romo both emphasized that the school board’s main concern is the students and that while the community and town of Sunol is the school’s backbone, the people who make up the school should take primary concern, which is why they both vouched for Bobertz because of his involvement in all aspects of the school.
Others, like former Sunol Glen parent Kindra Mendall, also endorsed Bobertz saying that he not only knows everyone in the community and volunteers at the school all the time, but he also knows how to ask questions regarding budget and spending items.
I have seen (Bobertz) here countless hours, volunteering his time at the school, meeting with students on a garden day,” said Mendall, a former Sunol Glen School parent. “He is truly a fiscal watchdog. Everyone talks about (how) we need to watch the budget. He’s the only one I’ve seen stand up here and go ‘I have questions about the warrants, please answer them.'”
