Martha Fluor tapped to lead school board

Deirdre Newman

After the swearing-in of two new board members and two incumbents,

Martha Fluor was unanimously elected the new school board president

Tuesday.

Dana Black was named vice president and Serene Stokes will

continue as clerk for a second year.

It will be Fluor’s third stint as president.

“I’m looking forward to starting a new year with a new board,”

Fluor said. “It’ll be different [than the last two times] because of

the two new board members and a [different] superintendent [Robert

Barbot].”

Black said she, too, looks forward to a positive, productive year.

Stokes said she didn’t mind being passed over for the vice

presidency because ensuring that Costa Mesa was represented in the

top leadership was more important. Stokes’ district includes Corona

del Mar.

“The perception may be that Newport Beach is taking over, and

that’s not what we want,” Stokes said.

When the school board came to schedule its meetings on the second

and fourth Tuesdays of the month, an item that usually gets automatic

approval, new Trustee Tom Egan raised a concern.

Egan pointed out that the school board and Newport Beach City

Council meet at the same time. Since only one TV station provides

coverage, the school board meetings are not shown in Newport, Egan

said.

Barbot said he would look into the scheduling conflict.

After his inauguration, Egan also thanked opponent Wendy Leece for

her eight years of service and said the election was a learning

experience.

“The fact that I didn’t get 100% of the votes tells me that I need

to seek out information from the opposition if I am to represent all

the stakeholders,” Egan said. “I’m sure that some of my votes will

displease some of you some of the time.”

“I take comfort, though, in the fact that it is logically

impossible for me to offend all of you all of the time,” he said.

* DEIRDRE NEWMAN covers education. She may be reached at (949)

574-4221 or by e-mail at deirdre.newman@latimes.com.