HUSD board election draws a crowd

Healdsburg voters will have an opportunity to vote for trustees
on the school board for the first time in eight years come November
after three candidates filed nomination papers for two seats by
last week’s deadline.
Challengers include shop teacher Joseph “Tony” Pettis, retired
professor Dorothy Rudy and business owner Vincent Dougherty. As
expected, incumbents Mary Burke and Lorri Emmerich did not file
papers and will not be on the ballot. Both had informed the
district they wouldn’t run for a new term.
The last contested election was held in 2002 when Emmerich first
took office. In the years since trustees have either run unopposed
or been appointed when not enough candidates came forward to
run.
“I think there’s interest in providing great leadership in our
school district and I think that the school board trustee role
appears appealing,” said Healdsburg Unified School District
Superintendent Jeff Harding. “I think it’s a positive reflection on
the school district’s relationship with the community.”
Healdsburg Unified is the only of the community’s area school
districts to attract enough candidates for an election in November.
Alexander Valley Union School District garnered three candidates
for three seats, while West Side Union School District and the
Geyserville Unified School District fell short of the needed
candidates and will now need to recruit and appoint trustees
outside of the normal election process.
While other districts seek out candidates, the three challengers
in the HUSD race will be reaching out to community groups and
voters asking for their vote.
Dougherty, 48, owns a computer networking company in Healdsburg
and is a longtime community volunteer. “I’m the son of a retired
educator, and I’ve had a very keen interest in schools for the last
20 years,” he said. “I’ve volunteered hundreds of hours with the
district and I was looking for new ways to volunteer.”
Dougherty is a member of the Kiwanis Club and is active in youth
sports organizations including little league and football. His son
recently graduated The Healdsburg School and is preparing to enter
his first year at Cardinal Newman. He’s upfront that his son is not
attending public school and believes children should attend the
school best suited for them.
He plans on using social media and to walk precincts’ to meet
voters. “I’m going to be the guy who’s going to walk into the
downtown business and ask the owner what they think about the
schools,” he said.
Pettis, 66, is officially a retired shop teacher but still works
part-time at Geyserville High School. His career has spanned three
decades with a 14-year break from the classroom in 1981 to 1995
when he owned Tony’s Auto Parts in Healdsburg. His three daughters
all attended Healdsburg schools and went on to college to earn
advanced degrees.
While his daughters all followed the college track, Pettis spent
much of his career with kids with a different focus in school. “In
working with shop kids for most of my life I understand they need a
spokesperson as well,” he said. “Usually the kids who are college
bent can get there. There are other kids who aren’t helped very
much in this climate.”
He feels the time is right for him to offer his perspectives and
experience to the school board. “I’ve thought about running before,
but I just didn’t have the time to devote to it,” he said. “Now I’m
not working every day and have the time and energy to devote to it.
I think I can add some business sense and stability to the
decisions the board has to make.”
Rudy, 67, is a former Spanish professor and department head at
Florida Atlantic University. She moved with her husband to
Healdsburg for her retirement years and has since taught at Sonoma
State University and Santa Rosa Junior College. She now runs a
business sending college students to Spain and Ecuador to study
Spanish.
“I’ve been in education all my life,” she said. “I’ve taught for
40 years. I feel like I can contribute to the Healdsburg Unified
School District in a positive manner. I feel as though my language
ability will help. I enjoy the fact that students can succeed in
life. I feel like this is a good thing for me to do, to give back
to the community.”