Santa Rosa school board race pits Jenni Klose against challenger Ever Flores

Labor unions are lining up in force behind a challenger attempting to unseat Santa Rosa City Schools’ most tenured board member on Nov. 3.

Ever Flores, a counselor at Healdsburg High School for two decades and current president of the Healdsburg Area Teachers Association, has the backing of the 900-member Santa Rosa Teachers Association, as well as the Santa Rosa Junior College All Faculty Association, the North Bay Labor Council, and trade groups representing Teamsters, electrical workers, health care workers, bricklayers and sprinkler fitters.

Flores, 46, is challenging incumbent Jenni Klose, 51, an attorney and executive director of a nonprofit housing advocacy group who is the longest-serving representative on the seven-member Board of Trustees and a three-time board president.

It’s a contest for the trustee Area 1 seat that almost wasn’t.

Klose announced she would not seek reelection in February but changed her mind and submitted paperwork on the eve of the filing deadline in August. She has since locked up endorsements from five of her six board colleagues as well as four of the five county Board of Education members, six of the seven Santa Rosa City Council members and all five Sonoma County supervisors, including three — Susan Gorin, Lynda Hopkins and Shirlee Zane — who endorsed both candidates.

The candidates hold similar positions on key issues facing the largest school district in Sonoma County, so the divide in endorsements points to a growing trend of organized interests weighing in on down-ballot races, according to Brian Sobel, a Petaluma political analyst.

“Generally what has been occurring over the last few years is that the pressure that is applied by special interest groups has continued to filter down to races that used to be confined to state Senate and Assembly,” he said. “I think that has moved onto Boards of Supervisors years ago, filtered down to City Council, and now very much with school boards as well.”

In throwing its weight behind Flores well before Klose said she would not seek a third term, SRTA president Will Lyon said the group was pushing back against what he said was a bitter stretch of labor relations under her leadership.

“We assumed she was running,” Lyon said. “It was one of the reasons to endorse him early and kick-start his campaign.”

Lyon said Klose’s three years as board president were especially tumultuous in the eyes of the union leadership.

“In Jen Klose’s role as president, it was very ’us versus them.’ We got close to the strike line three times in those three years,” he said. “The other board members said they want her because of her experience on the board, but her experience on the board was tough for us. We don’t want that experience.”

Klose said her tenure as president coincided with devastating fires, floods and budget woes that naturally had rough patches. Some school board debates over policy issues devolved into the personal unnecessarily, she said.

“I think it’s unprecedented for someone to sit in the presidency for three years. That is where my colleagues voted to have me serve,” she said. “I take that as a very strong vote of confidence. But when you are the face of the board through three tough labor negotiations, you take the personal heat."

“It became a little personal and I find that an unfortunate tactic,” she said.

And Klose drew a line between union leadership and the rank-and-file employees.

“I have the support of a lot of teachers,” she said. “I think it is very safe to say the position of the SRTA leadership does not represent the position of a lot of their membership.”

Flores painted himself as someone who would address what he described as a damaged relationship between teachers and the district.

“I don’t think there is anyone on the board who could work as a bridge-builder at this point with the amount of contentiousness that has been built up in the last few years,” he said. “I see the school district is making some effort to reach out with an olive branch. That’s great and I want to continue that for the next four or eight years.”

Elected in 2012 in the wake of the emotionally wrought decision to close Doyle Park Elementary School, Klose has served as board president three times. She has served through the Tubbs fire in 2017, wildfires in every year since, deep budget woes and now the coronavirus pandemic, which has presented schools with unprecedented challenges in both teaching children online but also mapping a return to classrooms.

Flores has faced similar challenges in his role as counselor and union president in Healdsburg, a district most recently hit with canceled classes because of the Walbridge fire.

Both candidates support the controversial A through G requirement for high school graduation, a policy designed to make all graduates eligible for college, although they differ in their assessment of how the program was unveiled and implemented in the district. Both are backers of the newly adopted ethnic studies curriculum and both are supporters of the district’s increased focus on equity.

More than 40% of the elementary students in the district are English-language learners and more than 55% qualify for free or reduced-priced meals. In the high schools, 14% of students are English-language learners and more than 39% qualify for reduced-priced meals.

The district has approximately 15,700 students and 1,600 staff, including about 900 teachers.

Klose said her experience is a crucial advantage as the district faces challenges related to the pandemic and its return-to-school plans, as well as its efforts to redraw school boundaries and adjust transfer policies so that schools better reflect the ethnic and socioeconomic makeup of the district as a whole.

She also didn’t like the idea of all four school board seats being uncontested. Current board president Laurie Fong and vice president Ed Sheffield were both elected in 2016 and are the next-longest tenured board members. Both are running unopposed this election cycle. Omar Medina in Area 4 and Stephanie Manieri in Area 6 were elected in 2018, Area 2 Trustee Jill McCormick was appointed in 2018 and Area 3 Trustee Alegria De La Cruz was appointed in 2019 and is running unopposed this election cycle.

“The next-longest serving board member is only one term,” Klose said. “It doesn’t sit well with me to have someone without experience walk on the board in the biggest district in the county at this critical time. That would have been true no matter who it was. It’s not specific to Ever at all. We should have an election for an important position.”

Flores countered that he has decades of experience in education.

“As a career public school counselor it has been my life’s work to serve students, especially those who are highly at risk of dropping out of school,” he said. “I bring my years of experience as a school counselor, years of experience working with the migrant population, my experience as an immigrant to the United States and learning a new language and being able to go to college, and being able to provide transformative education through curriculum that empowers.”

Area 1 encompasses central Santa Rosa. Its borders run roughly to Fulton Road on its westernmost edge, Guerneville Road on the north, Highway 12 to Sonoma Avenue and the Santa Rosa Creek for its southeastern edge and west of Mendocino Avenue and south of Pacific Avenue to mark its northeastern corner.

Flores is leading the money race. He has raised $28,645 since the beginning of 2019 and spent $16,891 through Sept. 19. He had $11,733 left to spend in the final weeks of the election.

Klose reported raising no money last year and took in $6,944 through the Sept. 19 filing period. She reported $3,893 in unpaid expenditures.

You can reach Staff Writer Kerry Benefield at 707-526-8671 or kerry.benefield@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @benefield.