Paso Robles school board to hold special election after petition removes appointed member
The Paso Robles Joint Unified School District will hold a special election to fill an open seat on the board after appointed school board member Kenney Enney was removed from office by a community-member petition.
The petition received enough valid signatures to terminate Enney’s appointment and hold a special election for his seat.
That petition was filed with the county on Nov. 10, and at least 455 signatures were found to be valid on Dec. 9, according to the San Luis Obispo County Office of Education.
As a result, Enney’s appointment was terminated that day, meaning only six school board members will sit on the dais until the new member is elected.
Conducting the special election may cost about $493,000, according to the San Luis Obispo County Clerk-Recorder’s Office.
Enney, who was appointed to the board on Oct. 11 to replace now-Paso Robles City Councilmember Chris Bausch, told The Tribune that he will run in the special election.
“I only went to three school board meetings,” he said. “There are a lot of problems in the school district that I want to address still.”
Enney added that he was “a little disappointed in the teachers” because he believed that the petition was pushed forward by the their union.
He also said that he thought people didn’t like him because he is a “conservative Christian with a military background,” and he is “asking a lot of questions that people don’t like.”
In particular, Enney said that he takes issue with the state testing scores of Paso Robles students and said the board needs to focus on how it can help the school district improve in that area.
“We’re failing them, and we need to do better,” he said.
The community members who initiated the petition — including district supervisor of homeless and foster youth services Carey Alvord, Paso Robles High School athletic coach Juanetta Perkins, Cal Poly instructor and psychologist Susana Lopez and San Luis Obispo County social worker Elena Garcia — said Enney was an “extremist candidate” who held viewpoints that could result in discrimination against LGBTQ+ students.
Enney will not be able to sit on the board for its Tuesday evening meeting, which is set to begin at 6 p.m. in the board room off Niblick Road. The meeting will begin with the introduction of the newest board members who were elected to their seats in the November general election.
Those new members are Jim Cogan, Laurene McCoy, Joel Peterson and Sondra Williams, who join Dorian Baker, Nathan Williams and student trustee Olivia Wright.
