vanZee Pulls Ahead Of Petersen In School Board Race; Leads By 23 Votes

DANVILLE, CA — Jesse vanZee, a healthcare executive and president of the Montair Elementary School Dads’ Club, is narrowly leading the three-person race to represent Area 1 of the San Ramon Valley Unified School District Board. Area 1, currently occupied by outgoing Board President Ken Mintz, includes Alamo, Danville, Diablo, and parts of San Ramon, and is the only contested school board seat this election cycle.

For most of Tuesday night, Michelle Petersen, a former firefighter and Alamo Elementary School PTA president, was leading by a narrow margin. However, by late Tuesday night, vanZee eked ahead. As of Wednesday, vanZee leads with 3,713 votes, just 23 votes ahead of Petersen’s 3,690. Jerome Pandell, former chair of the SRVUSD Facilities Oversight & Advisory Committee, finished third, with 1,608 votes.

See real-time results below. Results are not final until certified by Contra Costa County.

“We had a fantastic turnout for our election night party last night! It was a nail-biter, but we are looking pretty good,” vanZee said Wednesday morning on Facebook.

“As we wait for all remaining ballots to be counted we wanted to take a moment to reflect on the wonderful people we’ve met during this campaign and again thank our community,” Petersen said Wednesday afternoon on Facebook. “Yesterday, campaign headquarters was so focused on our final calls, texts, and poll checks that we made it through all of our lists! The evening was energized and I was so grateful for all the supporters who joined us!”

Petersen and vanZee disagreed on hot-button issues like banning certain texts and education on race and gender. Petersen said in a September candidate forum that she feels the district should follow existing practices, and allow parents to opt out of certain books. vanZee said that there should be more parental involvement in curricula, and “would oppose any sort of teaching that teaches students they are oppressed or oppressors.”

The two candidates also differ on student mental health. vanZee has highlighted pandemic school closures as a major cause of suffering student mental health, and pledged to prevent future closures. Petersen said mental health problems stem from a variety of causes, and pledged to guarantee funding for mental health support.