New leaders in Paso Robles and Lucia Mar school board races. Here’s the update
The results of races for school board seats in San Luis Obispo County are becoming clearer, a Nov. 23 tally of ballots from the Clerk-Recorder’s Office showed.
Election workers have counted 110,096 ballots so far, pushing voter participation to 60.4%, according to the report.
Countywide, about 9,540 ballots are still left to count.
For school board, 47 candidates ran for 19 seats across eight districts. Here’s an update on where those races stand as of Nov. 23.
Paso Robles Joint Unified School District
Three new faces are coming to the Paso Robles Joint Unified School District board, with a new leader moving ahead in one of the races.
In the contest for the at-large seat, Laurene McCoy jumped ahead of Adelita Hiteshew, with 38.8% of the vote compared to 36.7%. Jim Irving was in third at 24.5%. McCoy’s lead over Hiteshew was 322 votes.
In Trustee Area 1, Jim Cogan had secured a seat on the board with a commanding lead of 48% of the vote. Following behind were incumbent Chris Arend with 27.5% and Peter Byrne with 24.5%.
In Trustee Area 4, Sondra Williams also was headed to victory with 42.9% of the total. Her closest challengers were appointed incumbent Frank Triggs with 37.7% and Catherine Reimer with 19.4%.
Two of the seats — Trustee Areas 1 and 4 — are for four-year terms, while the at-large seat is for a two-year term.
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 37.4% of the vote. Appointed incumbent Daevin Thomas followed with 32.8% and Ashley Smeester with 29.8%.
In Trustee Area 5, incumbent Colleen Martin was headed to reelection with 58.7% of the vote over Gary Joralemon at 41.3%.
In Trustee Area 6, Eilene Pham overtook Roxana Maldonado with 43.3% of the vote. Maldonado followed in second place with 41.2%, and Scott Bloom at 15.5%.
And in Trustee Area 7, Donna Kandel defeated Luke Davis 62.7% to 37.3%.
Atascadero Unified School District
In the Atascadero school district, nine candidates are competing for four seats. The election is at-large, meaning all voters within the district’s boundaries had all of the candidates on their ballots.
Tracy Ellis-Weit remained the top vote-getter with 14.9% of the vote, followed by Vy Pierce with 14.4%, Rebekah Koznek with 12.7% and Denise McGrew Kane with 12.3%.
Following them were incumbent Tami Gunther with 10.5%, Dan Hathaway with 11.1%, incumbent George Shoemaker with 9.3%, Scott Staton with 9.6% and Chris Collins with 4.97%.
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San Luis Coastal Unified School District
In San Luis Coastal, six candidates ran for three seats on the board.
In Trustee Area 1, incumbent Marilyn Rodger was cruising to reelection with 58.8% of the vote, while Loren Leidinger had 41.2%.
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. Banfield gathered 56.3% of the vote with Quesenberry following at 43.7%.
Incumbent Mark Buchman had more than doubled his opponent in the race for Trustee Area 4, ahead of Tony Evans 67.8% to 32.3%.
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 remained the overall leader with 27.3% of the vote, but two other candidates are in a tight battle for the second seat.
On Nov. 23, Jennifer Grinager inched ahead of Matt Allison 25.65% to 25.49% — with just 13 votes now separating them.
Following them were Jason Tesarz with 9.8%, Jay Raftery with 7.8%, and Fiona Bond with 3.8%.
Cayucos Elementary School District
In Cayucos, 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.
The Nov. 23 tally showed Kerry Friend leading with 42.3% of the vote, followed by incumbent Steve Geil with 33.3% and Chloe Phillips with 24.4%.
Coast Unified School District
Coast Unified, which serves Cambria, had one contested race for Trustee Area 2.
As of Nov. 23, incumbent Lee McFarland was leading with 51.2% of the vote over Susan Dever with 48.8%, a margin of only 20 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 Nov. 23, incumbent Peter Sysak was leading with 50.8% of the vote followed by Adrienne Garcia-Specht with 49.2%, a m argin of 290 votes.
This story was originally published November 23, 2022 at 4:20 PM.
