A few SLO County school board races remain too close to call. Here are the latest results
Some races for school board seats in San Luis Obispo County are proving to be quite tight, Wednesday’s latest tally of ballots from the Clerk-Recorder’s Office shows.
Election workers have counted 91,696 ballots so far, pushing voter participation to 50%, according to the Wednesday report.
Countywide, at least 27,320 ballots are still left to count, according to the Clerk-Recorder’s Office.
For school board, 47 candidates ran for 19 seats across eight districts. Here’s an update on where those races stand as of Wednesday at 3:15 p.m..
Paso Robles Joint Unified School District
Newcomer candidates continue to lead all three races in the Paso Robles Joint Unified School District.
In total, nine candidates competed 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 3:15 p.m. on Wednesday in Trustee Area 1, Jim Cogan is headed for a seat on the board with a commanding 472-vote lead, which makes up 48.4% of the total. Following behind were incumbent Chris Arend with 27.7% and Peter Byrne with 23.8%.
In Trustee Area 4, Sondra Williams also is headed to victory with a 222-vote lead and 44.3% of the total. Here closest challenger is appointed incumbent Frank Triggs with 35% and Catherine Reimer with 20.7%.
The closest race is for the at-large seat, where Adelita Hiteshew continues to hold a narrow advantage with 38.2% of the vote, trailed by Laurene McCoy at 36.5% and Jim Irving at 25.4%. Hiteshew’s raw vote lead over McCoy is 209 votes.
Lucia Mar Unified School District
San Luis Obispo County’s largest school district, Lucia Mar Unified, had competitive races in four trustee areas. In total, 10 candidates ran for a seat.
In Trustee Area 3, Andrea Naemi-Vergne was leading with 36.7% of the vote. Appointed incumbent Daevin Thomas followed with 32.4% and Ashley Smeester with 29%. A total of 139 votes separate the leaders.
In Trustee Area 5, incumbent Colleen Martin is headed to reelection with 59.9% of the vote over Gary Joralemon at 40.2%, a lead of 652 votes.
In Trustee Area 6, Roxana Maldonado was ahead with 43.7% — or 111 votes — trailed by Eilene Pham at 40.6% and Scott Bloom at 15.6%.
And in Trustee Area 7, Donna Kandel is handily beating Luke Davis 66.2% to 33.8%.
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.
As of Wednesday, Tracy Ellis-Weit remained the top vote-getter with 15.3% of the vote, followed by Vy Pierce with 14.6%, Rebekah Koznek with 12.4% and Denise McGrew Kane with 12%.
Following them were incumbent Tami Gunther with 10.9%, Dan Hathaway with 10.7%, incumbent George Shoemaker with 9.6%, Scott Staton with 9.2% and Chris Collins with 5.2% of the vote.
Currently in fifth place, Gunther is 439 votes behind for the final seat on the board.
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San Luis Coastal Unified School District
In San Luis Coastal, six candidates ran for three seats on the board.
However, Jim Quesenberry in Trustee Area 2 had indicated that he would automatically concede to Rob Banfield because he missed the deadline to pull out of the race.
In Trustee Area 1, incumbent Marilyn Rodger is cruising to reelection with 59.6% of the vote, while Loren Leidinger had 40.5%.
Rob Banfield gathered 56.1% of the vote with Jim Quesenberry following at 43.9%.
Incumbent Mark Buchman has more than doubled his opponent in the race for Trustee Area 4, ahead of Tony Evans 68.5% to 31.5%.
Templeton Unified School District
The race for two seats on the Templeton Unified School District board has proven to be among the most tightly contested in the county.
Janel Armet remains the overall leader with 27.3% of the vote, but two other candidates are in a tight battle for the second seat.
On Wednesday, Matt Allison barely inched ahead of Jennifer Grinager 25.5% to 25.2% — with just 22 votes now separating them.
Following them were Jason Tesarz with 9.7%, Jay Raftery with 8.2%, and Fiona Bond with 4.1%.
Cayucos Elementary School District
In the small coastal school district of Cayucos Elementary, five candidates ran 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.
Wednesday tallies show Kerry Friend leading with 43.6% of the vote, followed by incumbent Steve Geil with 35.2% and Chloe Phillips with 21.2%.
Coast Unified School District
Coast Unified, which serves Cambria, had one contested race for Trustee Area 2.
As of Wednesday, incumbent Lee McFarland was leading with 51% of the vote over Susan Dever with 49.1%, a margin of only 13 votes.
Cuesta College (San Luis Obispo County Community College District)
Cuesta College’s board of trustees had two candidates run for Trustee Area 4.
As of Wednesday afternoon, incumbent Peter Sysak was leading with 51% of the vote followed by Adrienne Garcia-Specht with 49%.
This story was originally published November 16, 2022 at 4:18 PM.
