[img]2603|exact|||no_popup[/img]
Whether out of superstition or good sense, not one of the bursting-with-optimism backers of Measure CC, the record-setting $106 million school bond, dared to publicly confess what he or she was truly thinking:
“We had this thing clinched last Thanksgiving.”
Culver City voters rewarded 11 months of assiduous work by hundreds of laser-focused parents, school professionals and other deeply committed School District volunteers to deliver a lopsided 76 percent to 24 percent victory in yesterday’s election.
They walloped the required 55 percent threshold by a hefty 19 points, a margin mindful of Culver City’s most recent parcel tax vote.
Almost sheepishly, numerous supporters acknowledged at the victory party at the rockin’ home of Jerry and Janet Chabola that, well, um, yes, they knew, or surely sensed, from the outset that the school bond dedicated to “obviously needed” physical repairs and technological upgrades ,was the biggest lock since FDR’s last race.
When it came to triumphant feelings, they had starchy competition. But School Board President Laura Chardiet and her BFF colleague on the Board, Kathy Paspalis, co-chairs of the Yes on CC campaign, almost were too overcome with joy to speak. They found their voices, however, and the glasses-clinking crowd at the Chabolas roared every time a new name was mentioned.
Unless one’s name is Bergdahl, the soldiers in a campaign typically remain faceless. Not this time. Ms. Chardiet and Ms. Paspalis, after minutes of trading bombastic banter, saluted and presented awards to two “uber volunteers” of the CC campaign, Leslie Gardner and Jamie Wallace.
Two of the quietest and tallest figures in the Chabola living room were men who had beefy, powerfully influential hands in the onesided outcome, Supt. Dave LaRose and Mike Reynolds, perhaps the most involved assistant superintendent/business ever has hired.
Sights Previously Unseen
Diplomatically, parents who have been active in the District for years, were trying to remember the last time, if ever, the top two administrators ever had been so active in a campaign. No one’s memory produced a single name.
Tellingly, the elegantly articulate Mr. LaRose, who never has been at a loss for words, and Mr. Reynolds, similarly gifted, were the two most modest persons in the household. Each is rounding out his second year in Culver City, and no one present remembered seeing two authentically active administrators quite like them, Although both played daily hip-deep roles in the CC campaign, you would not have known it last evening. Both stood off to the side, noiselessly chatting with their wives.
Day to day around the District office on Irving Place, they often seem inseparable, another case of BFFs.
A relationship pattern has developed among the top tier of School District leaders, and observers said that such seldom-seen collaborativeness surely was a decisive factor in a campaign that a year ago today did not remotely resemble a cinch outcome.
No wonder Jeannine Wisnosky Stehlin was glowing brighter than the moon. She is the face and the president of United Parents of Culver City, the two-year-old parents union, that may be en route to the heavyweight championship of Culver City. The UPCC played a pivotal role in last November’s School Board election and again this spring in the Measure CC drive.
The Chamber of Commerce played a significant role in the winning Measure CC campaign. Two of the Chamber’s most prominent leaders, Goran Eriksson and Michael Hamill, were invited to take bows.
Former City Councilman Scott Malsin, a major media/creativity figure in the CC campaign, probably identified the jackpot reason after absentee voters staked out the 76 percent victory just after the polls went dark.
“We did a great job of communicating our message,” he said. “We told the story of what good work Measure CC was going to do, and that this was a really good value.”
Mr. Malsin likely echoed the convictions of a majority of supporters when he said “we could have been here seven or eight months ago” if former School Board member Karlo Silbiger had not sparked an instant “no” vote by the Board last July 1, stunningly aborting the first bond campaign.
