Election 2020: Early returns are reported for Orange County school board races

As of 9 p.m. Tuesday, below are the school board election results for the Newport-Mesa Unified, Fountain Valley, Huntington Beach City, Huntington Beach Union and Laguna Beach Unified school districts, and for the Coast Community College District:

Newport-Mesa Unified School District

In the race for Newport-Mesa Unified School District Board of Education, eight candidates vied for three open seats. Outgoing Board President Martha Fluor, who represents Area 1, and Area 6 Trustee Dana Black did not seek reelection.

Tuesday’s early results showed challenger Leah Ersoylu leading over incumbent Vicki Snell in Trustee Area 1 with 55.05% and 4,519 ballots cast as of 9 p.m., compared to Snell’s 44.95%, or 3,690 votes. Area 1 encompasses Early College and Estancia high schools, TeWinkle Intermediate School, and Adams, California and Killybrooke elementary schools.

In Area 3, which includes Eastbluff Elementary, Corona del Mar Middle School, and Back Bay/Monte Vista and Corona del Mar high schools, Carol Crane was leading a two-candidate race with 69.1% and 7,208 votes, over Charles Kent Booker, who had earned 30.9% with 3,223 ballots cast in his favor.

Among four candidates running in Trustee Area 6 — which includes Kaiser, Woodland, Mariners and Newport Heights elementary schools and Harper Preschool — Krista Weigand was the top vote getter with 48.15% or 4,582 ballots cast, followed by Amy Peters, who’d earned 39.87% with 3,794 votes. Results showed Xeno Ralf Muller II coming in third, securing just over 8% of the vote, with 764 ballots, while Alex Zavouris had earned 3.95% with 376 votes cast.

Coast Community College District

In Coast Community College District Trustee Area 2, incumbent Jerry Patterson led with 51.85% of the vote, with challengers Tony Bui and Long Pham trailing behind with 27.89% and 20.25% respectively. Fellow incumbent Mary Hornbuckle, who oversees Trustee Area 4, led with 76.42% of the votes. Candidate Michael Collier followed with 23.58% of the vote at the time of reporting.

The five-member Board of Trustees governs Orange Coast College in Costa Mesa, Golden West College in Huntington Beach and Coastline College in Fountain Valley and Newport Beach.

Fountain Valley School District

Early returns gave Steve Schultz a significant edge atop a race for two open seats on the Fountain Valley School District board of education, which governs seven elementary schools and three middle schools.

Schultz had garnered more than a third of the reported vote among the four candidates with 11,613 ballots (36.88%) cast in his favor.

Jeanne Galindo was positioned to defend her seat, holding onto second place with 8,799 votes (27.94%).

Incumbent Ian Collins was in pursuit in third with 6,428 votes (20.41%) and Tom Nguyen was in fourth with 4,652 votes (14.77%).

Huntington Beach City School District

Incumbent Bridget Kaub appeared to be on her way to reelection to the Board of Trustees in Area 1.

Kaub had 4,140 votes, or 74.73% of the total. Challenger Roger Noor had 1,400 votes or 25.27%.

Huntington Beach Union High School District

With two of five seats up for grabs, incumbents Susan Henry and Michael Simons held significant leads in their bids for reelection to the governing Board of Trustees.

Henry had 44,891 votes, or 25.91% of the total. Simons had 39,602 votes, which represented 22.81% of the total number cast.

Saul Lankster had 25,469 votes, and Spencer Hagaman had 25,156. Christine Hernandez tallied 24,464 votes and Claudia Ramos had 13,764.

Laguna Beach Unified School District

Kelly Osborne led a group of five candidates in the race for two available spots on the Laguna Beach Unified School District board of education, which oversees Laguna Beach High School, Thurston Middle School, and El Morro and Top of the World Elementary schools.

Osborne had 6,546 votes (32.39%), followed by incumbent Jan Vickers with 5,080 votes (25.13%).

The remaining challengers were tracking in the following order: Amy Kramer 3,660 votes (18.11%), Sheri Morgan 3,196 votes (15.81%) and Howard Hills 1,730 votes (8.56%).

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