A June 25 editorial encouraged candidates to step forward to run in the so-far uncontested Area 6 race (covering the Pocket area, and including Kennedy High School, Sam Brannan Middle School and six elementary schools) in the Sacramento City Unified school district.
Since then, people have asked who is running in Area 1, the downtown district, against incumbent Ellyne Bell.
The candidate is Paige Helen Powell, who has lived in Land Park for seven years. Her husband is a McClatchy High graduate. Her sons went to McClatchy High and New Tech High. She's a graduate of Sacramento State University.
For the past 12 years, she has been an English teacher at Roseville High, where she's been recognized as a Placer County "Teacher Who Makes a Difference," received a commendation from the City of Roseville and received a district Award of Excellence.
She says she's running for the school board to:
Put the focus back where it belongs, the kids and education. An observer of board meetings will hear a lot of discussion about adults but very little about students. Too many of our students are failing to achieve at the level necessary to be productive, happy, functioning members of society, and I don't see the necessary alarm that this failure should generate from the current board. This board has spent a lot of time in workshops and meetings talking about how they should govern themselves. We need board members who care more about our kids."
She continues:
"I'm running for the board because we need board members who are deeply alarmed by the precarious financial situation of this district. My opponent has been on this board for almost four years, and it has taken recent grand jury reports and a media spotlight to get a hint of action."
She observes that she has "experience from two different sides of education, a parent and a teacher...The board needs this unique perspective."
This should be an interesting contest.
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