When Hartnell College teachers left their classrooms and formed a picket line last fall, Steve McShane was probably the second most unpopular guy on campus – next to President Ed Valeau. Teachers criticized McShane, chairman of the Hartnell College Board of Trustees, for not pushing for a settlement in the two-year contract squabble. Most agree it was the stubbornness and arrogance of the now-retired Valeau that created the divide between the administration and teachers. But not McShane.

“It would be easy to say it’s Dr. Valeau’s fault, but I don’t think that would be fair,” McShane says. “We can all look back and take responsibility.”

McShane says he wants to move forward. But despite his excitement about Hartnell’s future, McShane’s past may end up haunting him as he seeks a second term on the Hartnell board.

McShane resigned from his north county seat on July 23 after moving out of the trustee-area boundaries. He says he moved to south Salinas to be closer to his business, McShane’s Nursery. Now, McShane is running for Hartnell’s Trustee Area 3 seat, which encompasses south Salinas, the Highway 68 corridor and Las Palmas. Incumbent Aaron Johnson says he’s leaning toward not running for reelection.

The filing deadline for candidates is Friday, Aug. 10. If the incumbent doesn’t file it’s pushed back to Aug. 15. At press time, only one Hartnell Trustee hopeful – Jerome McCready – had filed the necessary paperwork with the county Elections Department required to run for office. However, all of the other candidates in this story have “pulled papers,” indicating that they plan to run in the Nov. 6 election.

So far, two candidates say they will challenge McShane: small business owner Josh Stratton and Pat Donohue, Mayor Dennis Donohue’s stepmother. Stratton owns Superior Stone Care, which cleans stone, grout, tile and concrete. Both candidates point to the October 2006 teachers’ strike as proof that Hartnell needs a leadership change. “Any board that is that irresponsible to let something like that happen needs to be replaced,” Stratton says. “The board let the school and community down.”

McShane does have his regrets. He says he wishes he had helped establish a better working relationship with faculty and administrators before they sat down to negotiate. He says this could have prevented the faculty’s distrust over data crunched by the administration.

If elected to a second term, McShane says he will work to establish open communication among the board, administration, teachers and students. He says the college’s interim president, Phoebe Helm, has already made improvements. Helm redesigned board meetings to give faculty and other union members seats at the staff table. But for now – and unless he’s elected to the south Salinas seat – McShane will have to sit in the audience.

• • •

While past races at Hartnell have come and gone without much fanfare, this election is drawing a lot of community interest, not only because of the strike but also because the college’s accreditation is in jeopardy. The Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges recently placed Hartnell on probation. Commissioners found, among other things, that school catalogs were outdated and the college lacks effective governance.

Ann Wright is the newly elected president of the Hartnell College Faculty Association, which represents about 150 professors on campus. While the union hasn’t yet endorsed any candidates, Wright says the union will campaign hard for teacher-friendly board members. “I think the community feels the same way faculty does,” Wright says. “We need new people in there.”

With four seats up for grabs, November’s election could shift the seven-member board’s composition in the teachers’ and staffs’ favor. Trustees Bill Freeman and Juan Martinez have historically sided with the unions. Martinez’s seat isn’t up for grabs. Until recently, it looked like Freeman, who represents north Salinas’ Trustee Area 2, would run unopposed. But earlier this week, Rick Giffin, a Hartnell Bond Oversight Committee member and a representative of the Monterey Peninsula Taxpayers Association, pulled papers.

Other potential pro-union votes come from Trustee Area 1 candidates: retired teacher Polly Jimenez and John Aaron, president of the Alisal Teachers Association, although Aaron says he will likely withdraw his candidacy because of the crowded race for the north county seat. The other north county candidates include retired administrator Manuel Osorio, North Monterey County School District Trustee Kevin Healy and perennial candidate Jerome (Jerry) McCready.

In the past, McCready has run for governor, US Congress and the state Assembly. On Nov. 6, he’ll try his odds at three seats: Hartnell, North County Fire Protection District and the Castroville Water District. “I’m on disability,” McCready says. “I’ve got plenty of time on my hands.”

Trustee Area 4, the east Salinas seat, on the other hand, has only one declared candidate: Jeff Davis. Davis is a Salinas Jaycees board member and a Republican political consultant.

But the pivotal race in this election looks to be the contest for Trustee Area 3. McShane is the candidate to beat and Stratton and Donohue, a retired recreation-park director in Watsonville, will likely give him a tough run.

• • •

Sitting at Starbucks in Marina, Stratton reminisces about his time as an advance coordinator and press representative for the White House. In the late ‘90s Stratton staged motorcades and set up photo-ops for former President Bill Clinton and Vice President Al Gore. After a stint selling rockets used to launch satellites, in 2003 Stratton returned to the county where he grew up and attended Carmel High School.

Now Stratton wants to trigger change at Hartnell. If elected, he says he would work to increase enrollment, expand the curriculum and make sure the college attracts quality teachers. He also says he wants to trim the administration’s budget. “Hartnell is very administrator heavy,” he says. “Some of the roles overlap.”

Stratton accuses the majority of the board of toeing the line under Valeau. He says he won’t be a yes-man for the administration or the teachers. “I’m just a regular guy, and I am not going to be intimidated by anyone.”

McShane, too, says he will be an independent vote. “I don’t see myself as a rubber stamp for administration,” he says, adding that he disagreed with Valeau weeks before the strike when he called a press conference announcing a special board meeting to discuss a settlement. Valeau cancelled the meeting, saying it was not properly agendized.

While McShane touts this episode as a show of independence, the Accrediting Commission called these types of news conferences “inappropriate behavior.” While primarily singling out Trustee Freeman’s antics, which included joining the picket line with teachers, the accreditation report said trustees routinely violated the accreditation standard “that once decisions are made, the board acts as a whole.” The commission also decided to place Hartnell on probation.

Now, the trustees must complete training and update their ethics policy as part of the initial progress report due to the commission in October. If the college doesn’t follow through with the recommendations, the commission could suspend Hartnell’s accreditation, which means students’ classes won’t transfer to other universities.

McShane puts a positive spin on the issue, and says the campus is now rallying to fix its accreditation woes. “The energy that in my opinion was negative is now being directed in a positive direction.”