outpouring of campaign contributions<\/a> on both sides.<\/p>\nYet a candidate with a notably smaller war chest leads the way in one of two races, as of early election results Tuesday night.<\/p>\n
Anna Molander Hermann, whose endorsements included local trade unions and California Assemblymember Maggy Krell, was just ahead of Dominique Donnette, 35% to 33%, as of polls closing. Davon Thomas had 22% of the vote.<\/p>\n
Incumbent Paul Keefer leads Annie Fischer, 53% to 47%, in the race for the other board seat, with about 18% of the votes counted.<\/p>\n
Fischer and Thomas each received last-minute six-figure contributions from the Sacramento City Teachers Association.\u00a0Keefer, Fischer\u2019s opponent, reaped the benefit of charter school advocates\u2019 backing, as did Donnette, facing Thomas.<\/p>\n
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Nikki Milevsky, union president, pointed to what she called previous failures by the board that necessitated an overhaul.<\/p>\n
The seven-member county board oversees 13 school districts, as well as the Los Rios Community College District. The county has a handful of its own schools, accounting for\u00a0roughly 30,000\u00a0students.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The board has\u00a0major decisions pending, including the appointment of a new county superintendent, which could have direct implications for the Sacramento City Unified School District.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The county board races did not feature a primary election. Tuesday\u2019s winners will begin their\u00a0four-year terms\u00a0July 1.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Board President Mariana Corona\u00a0Sabeniano\u2019s\u00a0seat was also up for election in 2026, but she faced no challengers.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Sleepy election gets spendy\u00a0<\/p>\n
A typically more low-key election saw whopping sums this year, on both sides.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Fischer received almost $177,000 from the local teachers\u00a0union. Keefer\u2019s biggest dollars came from the Charter Public Schools Political Action Committee, which put\u00a0just over $98,000\u00a0toward his campaign.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In the area that covers the largest\u00a0portion\u00a0of Sacramento City Unified, the candidates were Molander Hermann, Thomas,\u00a0Donette and Ralph\u00a0Merletti.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Thomas banked a little more than $200,000 from the\u00a0teachers\u00a0association.\u00a0He had the favor of district leaders, too. Sacramento City Unified Trustee Taylor Kayatta gave $550 and Elk Grove Unified Trustee Michael Vargas contributed $100.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Donette\u00a0was by far the next highest earner in the race. She received almost $114,000 in donations from charter school advocates, plus\u00a0$10,000 from state Sen. Angelique Ashby.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Molander Hermann received about $25,000 total in contributions this year, according to campaign filings.<\/p>\n
Board\u2019s next big decisions<\/p>\n
The county board\u00a0is responsible for\u00a0choosing a superintendent, an appointment that has not come up in more than 20 years.\u00a0<\/p>\n
But with Superintendent Dave Gordon\u2019s retirement set for next summer, newly elected trustees will have a say in his successor.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
And\u00a0that next superintendent could have an outsized\u00a0role to play in\u00a0Sacramento City Unified.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The cash-strapped district has been grappling with a multimillion-dollar crisis since September. If leaders do not get a handle on the budget soon, they\u00a0would\u00a0need to turn to the state for a loan. With that emergency money comes an outside administrator \u2014 picked by the county superintendent.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Recent charter school vote ignites pushback<\/p>\n
Among the union\u2019s grievances \u2014 and Thomas and Fischer\u2019s talking points \u2014 was the county board\u2019s recent decision to give an embattled charter school system another chance.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
A state audit last summer found a multitude of violations by\u00a0the former leadership at\u00a0Highlands Community Charter and Technical Schools in Sacramento. They included\u00a0wasteful spending,\u00a0such as expensive\u00a0trips to San Diego and Hawaii,\u00a0along with inaccurate attendance records and inappropriate hiring practices.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Twin Rivers Unified School District board, charged with overseeing the charter system, moved to shut it down at the start of the year. New Highlands leaders appealed\u00a0immediately\u00a0to\u00a0the county\u00a0board.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Trustees overturned the\u00a0decision\u00a0by a vote of 4-3. Keefer was among the \u201cno\u201d votes, supporting the closure of\u00a0Highlands.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Savannah Kuchar\u00a0is a reporter covering education. She came to Sacramento to be a part of the Abridged team and contribute to a crucial local news source.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Abridged version: A more under-the-radar ballot item \u2014 races for the Sacramento County Board of Education \u2014…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":344045,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[121,123,122],"class_list":["post-344044","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sacramento","tag-sacramento","tag-sacramento-headlines","tag-sacramento-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/344044","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=344044"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/344044\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/344045"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=344044"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=344044"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=344044"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}