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With the race for Alameda County superintendent of schools too narrow of a margin to call after Election Night, both candidates say they are still hopeful as they wait to hear the final results in the days ahead.
Two-term incumbent L.K. Monroe currently sits on top with a 51.71% lead over challenger Alysse Castro who is at 48.29% — making the contest still undecided with ballots still left to count.
Monroe has led the county office since winning a runoff election in 2014 and then an uncontested ballot in 2018. Castro is an Alameda County resident who is currently the executive director of court, county and continuation high schools in the San Francisco Unified School District.
Castro told the Weekly that she feels the election is “excitingly close.”
“My understanding is that there’s only 82,000 votes in this race of what is likely to be close to 300,000,” Castro said. “So we’re under a third of the votes counted. And I consider this way too close to call until we’ve counted all the votes.”
Castro cites six top themes on her website: “break the school-to-prison pipeline; embed systems of care in schools; our kids deserve guarantees, not choices; teachers from our community for our community; safety comes from support; and personalize learning for equity and agency.”
She said that regardless of the outcome, she is proud of the fact that her campaign struck a chord with the county in addressing the school-to-prison pipeline.
“We’re really in a moment in our country and in our Alameda County region where we’re thinking about justice and justice systems,” Castro said. “I’m really excited that we were able to get a lot of voters to see and understand — how will the county superintendent of schools play in breaking the school to prison pipeline?”
She added that even if she doesn’t get the position, she will continue to support kids and educators in her current role, which is what her goal has always been.
“We just are all about trying to get the highest level of support for kids, teachers,” Castro said. “That’s what it’s all about.”
Monroe told the Weekly that as she sits in the lead, she is far from celebrating and that while she is pleased with her standings, it is still too close to call.
“I’m continuing to feel, you know, encouraged and optimistic about the initial results, but we’re clearly watching it,” Monroe said. “I’ve not put out any statement yet, obviously, because it’s early.”
She noted that the nature of the 2022 campaign has been extremely competitive race.
“It’s been a race that’s been run around particular issues,” she said. “Mostly, you know, there have been a lot of issues that have been raised on my opponent’s side taking issue with my leadership, which is not unusual when you’re the incumbent.”
One of these issues Monroe is talking about is regarding a set of decisions made by Monroe and her administration during the pandemic that has been thrust into the campaign discourse in recent weeks.
Critics have called into question the distribution of stipends for COVID-19 response duties to certain county education employees, including managers who have received between $15,000 and $22,500 in the pandemic through April.
But Monroe said that she has not been getting involved in that discourse because none of the funding that was given to staff was out of the norm.
“What I have acknowledged is that the process was not a clear one and the process was because it was something that was moving fast and responsive to what we were doing in the moment,” she said.
She said it was necessary to give these stipends to employees for doing work like setting up testing sites, getting coworkers vaccinated and passing out personal protective equipment during their winter break.
“Those are the kinds of things that these stipends were given to both leaders and classified staff for doing and I feel like because the narrative has been shaped in such a way that those truly great efforts of staff have not been highlighted,” Monroe said. “It’s been all about the dollars and cents.”
She added that they are still going back to make sure no employee who put in extra work is reviewed and provided a stipend if they were missed.
“It has been disheartening not to be able to celebrate the work of our people because of you know, just because of this particular season we’re in and how this issue has been framed,” Monroe said.
She said she wants to move past that as the final election numbers roll in and hopes to continue her work as county superintendent.
“It’s been eight years of really hard but really rewarding work,” Monroe said. “I’m very much looking forward to getting back to focusing on the work and the tasks at hand.”
The county expects to release its next results update Thursday. Any ballot postmarked by or before Election Day is eligible as long as it arrives within seven days of Election Day.
The results must be finalized for certification by 30 days after Election Day.
