Change coming to SLO County school boards. Here’s where the latest vote totals stand
Another tally of ballots released on Nov. 11 hows change blowing through San Luis Obispo County school boards as some longtime incumbents repain poised to be unseated.
Election workers have counted 71,696 ballots so far, pushing voter participation to about 39.3%, according to the Friday ballot count report.
There are about 47,320 ballots left to count, the Clerk-Recorder’s Office said.
For school board, 47 candidates ran for 19 seats across eight districts. Here’s an update on where those races stand as of Nov. 11 at 5 p.m.
Paso Robles Joint Unified School District
Newcomer candidates are leading all three races in the Paso Robles Joint Unified School District.
In total, nine candidates are competing for three seats available. Two of those seats — for Trustee Areas 1 and 4, are for four-year terms, while the other is an at-large election for a two-year term.
As of 5 p.m. on Nov. 11, in Trustee Area 1, Jim Cogan was leading with 48% of the vote. Following behind were incumbent Chris Arend with 27.2% and Peter Byrne with 24.8%.
In Trustee Area 4, Sondra Williams is the leader with 43.3%, followed by incumbent Frank Triggs with 35.1% and Catherine Reimer with 21.6%.
Adelita Hiteshew was leading the race for the at-large seat with 38.1% of the vote, trailed by Laurene McCoy at 36.1% and Jim Irving at 25.8%.
Lucia Mar Unified School District
San Luis Obispo County’s largest school district, Lucia Mar Unified, has competitive races in four trustee areas. In total, 10 candidates are running for a seat.
In Trustee Area 3, Andrea Naemi-Vergne was leading with 38.7% of the vote. Incumbent Daevin Thomas followed with 32.9% and Ashley Smeester with 28.4%.
In Trustee Area 5, incumbent Colleen Martin led the Friday night tally with 61.2% of the vote over Gary Joralemon at 38.8%.
In Trustee Area 6, Roxana Maldonado was ahead with 44.2%, trailed by Eilene Pham at 40.4% and Scott Bloom at 15.5%.
And in Trustee Area 7, Donna Kandel led Luke Davis 66.7% to 33.3%.
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.
With all precincts reporting, Tracy Ellis-Weit remained the top vote-getter with 15.6% of the vote, followed by Vy Pierce with 14.9%, Rebekah Koznek with 11.9% and Denise McGrew Kane with 11.7%.
Incumbent Tami Gunther had 11.3%, Dan Hathaway 10.4%, incumbent George Shoemaker 9.9%, Scott Staton with 8.9% and Chris Collins 5.4%.
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San Luis Coastal Unified School District
In San Luis Coastal, 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.
In Trustee Area 1, incumbent Marilyn Rodger was leading with 60.4% of the vote, while Loren Leidinger had 39.6%.
Rob Banfield gathered 55.3% of the vote with Jim Quesenberry following at 44.7%.
Incumbent Mark Buchman was leading the race for Trustee Area 4, ahead of Tony Evans 68.9% to 31%.
Templeton Unified School District
Voters in Templeton Unified School District had six candidates on their ballot running for two seats.
In this race, the leaders were Janel Armet with 27.3% and Jennifer Grinager with 25%.
Following them were Matt Allison with 24.9%, Jason Tesarz with 10.3%, Jay Raftery with 8.4%, and Fiona Bond with 4.1%.
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.
Friday tallies show Kerry Friend leading with 45% of the vote, followed by incumbent Steve Geil with 34% and Chloe Phillips with 21%.
Coast Unified School District
Coast Unified, which serves Cambria, had one contested race for Trustee Area 2.
As of Friday, incumbent Lee McFarland was leading with 51.9% of the vote over Susan Dever with 48.1%.
Cuesta College (San Luis Obispo County Community College District)
Cuesta College’s board of trustees had two candidates running for Trustee Area 4.
As of Friday afternoon, incumbent Peter Sysak was leading with 51.8% of the vote followed by Adrienne Garcia-Specht with 48.2%.
This story was originally published November 11, 2022 at 5:16 PM.
