Pat Murray
This November our city has the opportunity to bring three members to our South San Francisco Unified School District Board. Incumbent Phil Weise is campaigning for his seat. One seat belonged to Shirley Hoch who resigned last year due to health issues after serving our community well for years. The other open seat belonged to Liza Normandy who was voted into City Council and Patrick Lucy was appointed to that seat in January. Lucy is running as an incumbent.
We have done a series of Candidate Questions & Answers which can be viewed CLICK HERE.
Each candidate offers something solid to our School Board. We are a very fortunate city to have such quality folks step up willing to serve. Thank you to each and everyone of our neighbors for going to such great lengths to help our students, our schools, our community.
While there are 3 seats open, Everything South City had set to only endorse one candidate, John Baker. Since then we have received multiple inquires from neighbors asking for a 2nd and 3rd endorsement for this election. Since our purpose is help our neighbors navigate issues through out our city we have revisited our policy on ‘one endorsement only’. And since our initial ESC vote did yield a tie between John Baker and Pat Murray, we are very proud to announce Pat Murray is officially endorsed by Everything South City.
Pat’s decades of dedication to our students education is beyond question, as her multiple awards show. Pat has been through our school system as a student herself . * She has three children who also attended our local public schools and her youngest is attending Cal Poly*. Further as a volunteer within our schools for nearly 2 decades, Pat has witnessed changes and knows which work, and which do not. With her commitment to our educational system, our community, and her straight forward approach, she will do well. Pat recognizes the need for the community to understand what is happening at our District and her outreach is vital in bridging the two.
All of the candidates are pretty well versed. John Baker is a problem solver, looking at multiple ways for solutions, is a numbers guy, and stays focused to get results and is endorsed by Everything South City. We see the work that Pat Murray has done for the past 2 decades for our students and how well she understands all sides of issues before the community and our School Board and would bring valuable insight to the table and is endorsed by Everything South City. Patrick Lucy was appointed to our Board last year as he is highly qualified and has proved himself this past year. Rosa Acosta, a community volunteer, would bring a balance of diversity as she is looking to bring the Latina perspective to the table. Rick Ochsenhirt has served our community for decades in many capacities and would bring a wealth of knowledge, as would Phil Weise who is an incumbent having served on the SSFUSD Board since 1997. Sue Olinger is also on the ballot and had applied for appointment to the vacated seat left by Shirley Hoch.
Our endorsements do not go lightly as Everything South City works hard to maintain a neutral position on most issues. We ask that our neighbors study up on each candidate and make an informed and educated vote. You can vote for up to 3 candidates, or simply 1 or 2 of them. These candidates have done their job. Now it is time for us to do ours – and VOTE. We owe them, and our community, our vote and support for our School Board.
*correction on children’s info