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.
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