East Bay school board member recalled over Pride flag ban could win his seat back in November
One of the two board members recalled from a tiny East Bay school district earlier this year after it banned Pride flags on campus could win back the seat he was ousted from in November. His opponent, meanwhile, said she would prioritize keeping the school out of the headlines.
Ryan Jergensen, the former board member, and Erin Choin, a substitute teacher, are vying for an open seat on the Sunol Glen Unified School District board that oversees a single K-8 school with about 270 students. The district came under a national spotlight last September when Jergensen led a 2-1 vote to ban display of any banners except the state and U.S. flags; the move was largely seen as an effort to ban Pride flags.
That decision and the immediate backlash pitched the town of Sunol into a culture war, with neighbors pitted against one another. The recall effort started soon after, and Jergensen and a second board member, Linda Hurley, were voted out in July. Jergensen announced not long after that he would be running again.
“My feeling is there are a lot of people who will knee-jerk vote for him (Jergensen), but a lot of people who are like, you had your chance, it’s time for a fresh start,” said Mary Conant, minister of the Little Brown Church that sits a half-mile from the school; Conant supported the recall. “I think like everybody else in America, everybody in Sunol is just holding their breath right now.”
https://www.sfchronicle.com/politics/article/sunol-school-board-election-19842441.php