HOLLISTER
With 40.5 percent of eligible voter’s ballots counted in the San Benito High School District Board race, Evelyn E. Muro and Ray Rodriguez are heading toward victories as the unofficial and incomplete numbers now stand.
Muro has gained 38.4 percent of the vote, or 3,893 tallies. Rodriguez has 34.7 percent, or 3,519 votes. And Joseph Gardner is currently coming in at third with 26.5 percent, according to unofficial results, while county elections officials say they likely won’t release final numbers until Friday.
The county elections department will follow up by counting vote-by-mail ballots, which are expected to account for around 50 percent of total results. They will then complete a canvas of the vote after that count before making the results of the election official.
“I am very pleased with the results thus far,” said Muro, “and I am pleased with the direction the school board seems to be headed.” She added that she is “cautiously optimistic.”
Muro said her 40 years in education and the last four years she spent on the board qualify her to serve again.
“I’ve been a teacher through an administrator, and I am a trustee and a superintendent currently,” said Muro, referring to her full-time position with the North County School District. “I know how it all works – the good and the bad.”
Rodriguez, who said he has observed that students civil rights are not always kept in mind at San Benito High School, said that he has educated himself in education law that he is “the right person to bring the fresh perspective that is needed.”
Finally Joseph Gardner, appointed a year ago to the board, told the Free Lance last month that “parent and family representation” are what the board really needs. He could not be reached immediately before publication.
