It is just after dawn. Mark Sanchez and supporters, who are seeking re-election on the San Francisco Board of Education that he unexpectedly won in 2000, stand at the Castro Station entrance campaigning while potential voters whisk past them on their way to work.

Between 6:30 and 9 a.m., Sanchez and fellow San Francisco Green Party members passed out leaflets to potential voters on Election Day hoping to get that last vote and a hopeful re-election.

Since being elected to the board in 2000, Sanchez, 41, said he understands what it takes to be successful on the board and the duties that come with it, such as creating and passing legislation and resolution, hiring and firing of superintendents if needed and finalizing the budget.

“I ran four years ago because there hadn’t been a school teacher on the board for six years and I felt that there were major decisions being made about schools and kids,” he said.

Sanchez said, as a board member, he tries to address every concern that students, parents and teachers have. “I do enjoy getting to work with teachers, parents and students and going out into the community and seeing what their concerns are trying to advocate for those concerns, that’s my main job.”

Sanchez teaches 8th grade science in Menlo Park, Calif., at Garfield Charter School. Prior to teaching at Garfield Charter, Sanchez taught elementary at Glen Park, Edison and Paul Revere schools in San Francisco. Because of his 2000 election, he stopped teaching for the San Francisco Unified School District because it was deemed a “conflict of interest” to have him concurrently teach and be a board member.

Four years ago, Sanchez was not sure he had a chance of winning at all and admittedly lacked political experience. His campaign was not as large as others and he didn’t have much money to work with.

“Four years ago we won but it was in a way definitely unexpected because we spent $6,000 for a city wide race and nobody on the campaign, including myself, had any experience working at a political campaign before.”

Four years later, it is different.

For the last four months, the Sanchez camp has been campaigning for his re-election. But Sanchez has not spent too much time out in the public campaigning due to his work schedule. Sanchez said today he took the day off from school to hand out leaflets to potential voters.

“We are more aware of the dynamics and what you need to do to win in so far as getting the appropriate endorsements and making sure that you get your out name in different ways,” he said. “The major difference this time is that I actually have a campaign (people who work for him).”

Susie Siegel, who has been campaigning for Sanchez the last two months, holds a sign atop the Castro Station steps in support of him encouraging voters to re-elect Sanchez.

“The campaigning is going fantastic,” Siegel said. “I enjoy it because I believe in the cause.” Siegel is concerned with the state of education like many others with a vested interest in schools. “It goes beyond the classroom,” she said. “It’s state, local, and national.”

After the campaign at the Castro Station, Sanchez and his campaigners pack up their belongings and head over to the Mission District then later at the Balboa Bart Station. “I’m going to sleep all night for sure because I haven’t had a good night’s sleep in three weeks.”