Former San Jose mayor pulls endorsement of education official

A dispute is deepening over Santa Clara County’s top education leaders — one of whom just lost her reelection endorsement from former San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo amid the firing of county Superintendent of Schools Mary Ann Dewan.

Liccardo — who’s vying for Congressional District 16 — on Thursday confirmed he withdrew his endorsement for Grace Mah, Santa Clara County Board of Education trustee, who is part of the board majority that fired Dewan without cause on Oct. 3. The Liccardo campaign declined to comment on the reason for pulling the endorsement.

Mah, who didn’t respond to requests for comment, found herself in the hot seat earlier this month when an internal investigation into board members dinged her for flippantly disregarding open meeting laws.

“In May 2023, for example, Trustee Mah stated in an email that ‘lawyers said that they have never heard of anyone going to jail for violating the Brown Act’ and then a couple of months later at a Board Retreat, Trustee Mah stated, ‘If I’m not going to jail for violating the Brown Act, I don’t care if I break the law,'” reads an Oct. 11 summary of the findings presented by Oppenheimer Investigations, which conducted the investigation.

The findings detail another incident in June, when Mah facilitated a Head Start Policy Council special meeting that didn’t properly notify all the panel’s members or office of education employees. The report states Mah ran the meeting without a quorum ever being established.

Liccardo’s withdrawal of his endorsement comes amid Dewan losing her challenge in Santa Clara County Superior Court to be reinstated. Her supporters — which include state lawmakers and leaders of other local school districts — have called for a grand jury investigation over transparency concerns and complaints against the Santa Clara County Board of Education. Dewan’s firing was opposed by two trustees: Victoria Chon and Tara Sreekrishnan.

Mah is running for reelection in Area District 1 against Jessica Speiser, a Los Altos School District board member.

“The sad part of all of this is that it’s a huge distraction from the work the board of education is actually supposed to be doing: providing a safety net for the county’s most vulnerable children, including foster youth, kids experiencing homelessness and the most medically fragile students,” Jeremy Hauser, Speiser’s campaign consultant, told San José Spotlight.

Contact Brandon Pho at [email protected] or @brandonphooo on X, formerly known as Twitter.