Two ready to enter race Two ready to enter race (July 25, 2003)

Lowell, Townsend take out papers

by Rachel Metz

After a sluggish start to the race, a rise in interested locals signals there may be a contest for three empty school board seats this November.

Two more locals are considering a run for the Palo Alto school board, including Mandy Lowell, the current board president and Camille Townsend, a Palo Alto Council of PTAs member.

Along with previously announced hopefuls Keen Butcher, Barbara Spreng and incumbent Gail Price, Lowell and Townsend have picked up the necessary candidacy papers but have not yet filed with the Santa Clara County registrar of voters.

Although Grace Ma, founder of Palo Alto Chinese Education, also picked up candidacy papers, she stated she will not run for school board and was only interested in how the process works.

Lowell said she has been consumed recently by the challenges of getting Terman Middle School ready for the fall.

"I should be running the campaign to make sure that Terman opens as a viable school site with play fields," Lowell said in a phone message Sunday.

Lowell said after the Palo Alto Weekly ran an article on the school board election in its July 16 edition, she received numerous compliments from people who encouraged her to run.

Lowell is completing her first term on the board and has three children in Palo Alto schools. She won as a write-in candidate during the 1999 school board election and has worked as a corporate litigation attorney.

Townsend served as the vice president of leadership and legislation co-chair for the Palo Alto Council of PTAs. She has also served on the Jordan Middle School PTA. This spring Townsend helped launch letter-writing campaigns, encouraging locals to write to Sacramento legislators and voice opposition to Gov. Gray Davis' proposal to reroute local property taxes from basic-aid school districts.

Candidates must file for the election by Aug. 8 but if an incumbent does not file by that date non-incumbents have until the 13th to file for candidacy.

E-mail Rachel Metz at rmetz@paweekly.com