47 candidates are battling for SLO County school board seats. Here’s who’s ahead
Local school board races were among the most competitive in San Luis Obispo County this election, with 47 candidates running for 19 seats across eight districts.
In many cases, opposing slates of candidates faced off in efforts to steer oversight of schools in a particular direction as the future of public education became a hot-button topic after two years of pandemic.
Here’s a roundup of where the races stand as of the final Election Night tallies:
Paso Robles Joint Unified School District
Sweeping change could be coming to the Paso Robles school board with a slate of progressive candidates ahead in all three races.
In total, nine candidates are competing for three seats available. Two of those seats — for trustee areas one and four, are for four-year terms, while the other is an at-large election for a two-year term.
With all precincts reporting as of 1 a.m. Wednesday, in Trustee Area 1, voters had Jim Cogan leading with 48.3% of the vote. Following behind were incumbent Chris Arend with 27.3% and Peter Byrne with 24.5%.
In Trustee Area 4 with all precincts reporting, Sondra Williams is the leader with 42.7%, followed by incumbent Frank Triggs with 35.1% and Catherine Reimer with 22%.
Adelita Hiteshew was leading the race for the at-large seat with 38.3% of the vote, with Laurene McCoy next at 36.1% followed by Jim Irving with 25.5%.
Lucia Mar Unified School District
San Luis Obispo County’s largest school district, Lucia Mar Unified, has competitive races in four different trustee areas. In total, 10 candidates are running for a seat.
With all precincts reporting, in Trustee Area 3, Andrea Naemi-Vergne was leading with 39.3% of the vote. Incumbent Daevin Thomas followed with 32.1% and Ashley Smeester with 28.4%.
In Trustee Area 5, incumbent Colleen Martin led the early tallies with 61.9% of the vote over Gary Joralemon at 38%.
In Trustee Area 6, Roxana Maldonado was ahead with 43.7%, trailed by Eilene Pham at 40.5% and Scott Bloom at 15.8%.
And in Trustee Area 7, Donna Kandel led Luke Davis 66.3% to 33.5%.
Atascadero Unified School District
In the Atascadero school district, four seats are open with nine candidates running. The election is at-large, meaning all voters within the district’s boundaries had all of the candidates on their ballots.
At the moment, four new candidates are in position to take seats on the board, with the two incumbents trailing.
With all precincts reporting, Tracy Ellis-Weit was the top vote-getter with 15.4% of the vote, followed by Vy Pierce with 14.6%, Rebekah Koznek with 12% and Denise McGrew Kane with 11.8%.
Incumbent Tami Gunther had 11.3%, Dan Hathaway 10.5%, incumbent George Shoemaker 9.8%, Scott Staton with 9% and Chris Collins with 5.6%.
San Luis Coastal Unified School District:
In San Luis Coastal, which also has a $349 million bond measure up for voter consideration, six candidates were running for three seats on the board.
However, Jim Quesenberry in Trustee Area 2 has indicated that he will automatically concede to Rob Banfield because he missed the deadline to pull out of the race.
With all precincts reporting, incumbent Marilyn Rodger was leading the Trustee Area 1 race with 61% of the vote, while Loren Leidinger had 38.9%.
And Rob Banfield gathered 56.5% of the vote with Jim Quesenberry following with 43.4%.
Incumbent Mark Buchman was leading the race for Trustee Area 4, ahead of Tony Evans 67.9% to 31.8%.
Measure C-22, which needs 55% to pass, was leading 60.9% to 39.1%.
Templeton Unified School District
Voters in Templeton Unified School District had six candidates on their ballot running for two seats.
Of those, with all precincts reporting, the leaders were Janel Armet with 27.9% and Jennifer Grinager with 25.2%.
Following them were Matt Allison with 24%, Jason Tesarz with 10.3%, Jay Raftery with 8.1%, and Fiona Bond with 4.4%.
Cayucos Elementary School District
In the small coastal school district of Cayucos Elementary, five candidates were running for seats in three trustee areas.
Trustee Areas 2 and 3 went uncontested, while Trustee Area 1 had three candidates running for the one seat.
Final Election Night tallies show Kerry Friend leading with 44.8% of the vote, followed by incumbent Steve Geil with 36.1% and Chloe Phillips with 19.1%.
Coast Unified School District
Coast Unified, which serves Cambria, had one contested race for Trustee Area 2.
With two of two precincts reporting, incumbent Lee McFarland was leading with 52.1% of the vote over Susan Dever with 47.7%.
Cuesta College (San Luis Obispo County Community College District)
Cuesta College’s board of trustees had two candidates running for Trustee Area 4.
With all precincts reporting, incumbent Peter Sysak was leading with 51.9% of the vote followed by Adrienne Garcia-Specht with 48%.
This story was originally published November 8, 2022 at 8:28 PM.
