It's a tight vote total, but it's likely the San Francisco Unified School District Board of Education will retain two incumbents and have one fresh face after Tuesday's election. And more funding for arts, music, sports and library programs for at least the next 27 years also will be coming.
Emily Murase, the board's current vice president, and Hydra Mendoza, the senior adviser on education and family services to Mayor Ed Lee, appear to have been re-elected in a race that was too close to call on Election Night. Shamann Walton, who was endorsed by the teachers union, also won a seat on the board.
"I'm ready to get to work," Walton said Wednesday morning, even though he and Murase and Mendoza declined to declare victories since tens of thousands of votes remain uncounted.
Walton, the executive director of Young Community Developers that provides job training and support for Bayview-Hunters Point residents, said he is looking forward to further uniting schools with the community and introducing more vocation programs, internships, and opportunities for career and college readiness.
In her second term, Murase said she will continue championing the school district to Realtors and other San Francisco gatekeepers who may not think highly of The City's public schools.
Mendoza, who would enter her third term, said she will continue working on public-private partnerships with the SFUSD, such as the mayor's Middle Grades Leadership Initiative that uses donations from the Salesforce.com Foundation to put iPads into middle school classrooms.
David Latterman, principal of political research firm Fall Line Analytics, pointed out that it might be too early to call the race. Mendoza, in third place, was less than 1 percentage point above Trevor McNeil.
Meanwhile, Proposition C passed with 73.2 percent of the vote. The measure for the first time combined in one ballot measure the Children's Fund to continue supporting youth services and the Public Education Enrichment Fund that provides millions of dollars to public school programs.
The initiative also creates an Our Children, Our Families Council, as well as separates the existing rainy-day reserve into a city rainy-day reserve and school rainy-day reserve.
Examiner Staff Writer Joshua Sabatini contributed to this report.