| HAYWARD SCHOOL BOARD |
 

An attack mailer against school board member Luis Reynoso, who is seeking re-election this Tuesday, hit the streets recently from the Hayward Chamber of Commerce’s PAC Good Government Now!. The mailer states at two different points an anonymous quote from a former Hayward council member calling Reynoso a “disaster for the district.”

The mailer states that “Luis Reynoso is a disaster for the district. He is somebody who causes dissent. One person can ruin a board; a bad board can ruin a district.” Although the mailer neglects to state who made the statement, the quote itself can be traced back to an article in Cal State East Bay’s newspaper The Pioneer where it is attributed to Bill Quirk, who is running for the state Assembly.

The remainder of the quote in the article is “I can’t think of any more reason to support these people up here running than to get rid of Luis Reynoso.” Quirk is referring to the Chamber’s endorsed candidates Peter Bufete, Annette Walker and Sara Lamnin.

According to The Pioneer the event that Quirk attended was a fundraiser in early October hosted by the Chamber’s PAC with actor Danny Glover in attendance speaking in support of Walker. Glover  also made campaign contributions to Walker, according to financial reports. Quirk had no comment on the mailer because he says he had not seen it, nor read The Pioneer article.

The mailer further questions Reynoso’s attendance on board meetings to pass annual budget twice, his position against Measure G, failure to attend Measure I Oversight Committee Meetings as a HUSD liaison and holding up a recent HUSD board meeting in an attempt to change an agenda item.

Reynoso says the accusation about missing the vote for passing annual budgets is false and adds more context to the other accusations. Reynoso said he and another former board member attended the Measure I meetings until there were no more action items to be discussed. Both he and the other former board member, Sara Gonzales, no longer attended when it was necessary said Reynoso. As for Measure G, Reynoso believed the measure would result in government waste, “money is being given to contractors instead of having staff do the work,” said Reynoso.

As for the agenda item accusation Reynoso says changing the agenda happens often by board members depending on who is in attendance. Reynoso said if kids and their parents are there to hear a specific agenda item then that item should be moved up.

Reynoso believes they may be referring to recent controversy at a board meeting concerning an agenda item over a vote of no-confidence that Reynoso pushed for against board president Jesus Armas because of his engagement in an affair with other board member Maribel Heredia. Reynoso considers the affair to be a conflict-of-interest and thus a by-law violation.