The school board races have begun

Jose Paul Corona

With the gates closed to newcomers the race has begun for 32 Surf

City residents who have stepped forward to run for one of 11 open

seats on four school boards.

A total of five candidates are running for three open seats on the

Huntington Beach City School Board. Incumbents Shirley E. Carey and

Robert J. Mann are running for reelection. Challenging will be

resident and parent Celia Jaffee, who has served on the district

advisory committee, retired attorney Bill Wallace, a driving force

behind the recently successful $30-million school bond measure and

Rosa E. Latios.

The pool of candidates running for the three open seats at the

elementary school level is considerably broader. Ten candidates,

including incumbents Carol Kanode, Tracy Pellman and Pam Walker will

vie for three open positions on the Ocean View School District board.

Also in the fray are middle school teacher Carolee Focht; Gavin L.

McKiernan, who is the director of the Huntington Valley Boys & Girls

Club; retired teacher Sharon Holland; Bob Ewing, pastor of First

Christian Church of Huntington Beach; homemaker and attorney, Debbie

Cotton and Norm Westwell, a businessman who is also running for a

seat on the Huntington Beach City Council. Former Fountain Valley

City Council candidate John Briscoe is also running.

Frocht has served on the Ocean View School District Budget

Advisory Committee and plans on running so that she can help her

fellow teachers.

“Teachers say they don’t have a voice, I want to give them a

voice,” she said.

For the high school district, it is also a field of 10 running for

three spots.

Incumbents Bonnie Castry and Matthew Harper are defending their

posts while Brian Garland, the recently retired principal of Edison

High School and former Huntington Beach City School board member, has

thrown his hat into the ring. Garland recently resigned his post on

the Huntington Beach City School board.

He said his 25 years of experience on that board will give him an

advantage over other candidates.

“It allows me to hit the ground running,” he said. “I don’t have

to learn how to be a school board member.”

Also running are businesswoman Sylvia Garrett, who was a founding

member of the district’s Education Enrichment Foundation; businessman

Andrew Scott Patterson; educational consultant Jim Peters; teacher

and businesswoman Rosemary Saylor and teacher Ted K. Tadayon.

For the Coast Community College District, there are two open seats

that fall within Huntington Beach’s jurisdiction. In Area 1,

Governing Board Member George E. Brown is running for reelection

challenged by Joseph E. Ribal, a family and marriage therapist.

Corona del Mar resident John O. Lindgren is running unopposed for the

trustee seat in Area 5 of the college district.