Three conservative trustees on the high-profile Orange County Board of Education will face a variety of political challengers this June in newly redrawn voting districts, according to recent campaign filings made with the county.
Also, paperwork filed by the March 11 deadline shows that Superintendent Al Mijares, who oversees operations of the Orange County Department of Education, will face a challenger, Stefan Bean, endorsed by most of the current board. Bean is superintendent of Aspire Public Schools, a charter school system.
The Board of Education, which can approve or reject the Department of Education’s budget but does not control any of the county’s school districts, has drawn attention in recent years for advocating against face masks in schools, COVID-19 vaccine mandates and the study of racism known as critical race theory. The board has pushed some of its positions through lawsuits against Mijares and California Gov. Gavin Newsom.
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The board also supports opening more charter schools locally. It recently approved a request for a charter school founded by Jeff Barke, husband of Board of Education Trustee Mari Barke, to move under the county umbrella for future expansion.
Several challengers in the Trustee races say the incumbents have wasted taxpayer dollars on costly lawsuits and lost focus of their mission. The incumbents say they are proud of what they have accomplished and want to be re-elected so they can continue fighting for, among other things, stronger “parental rights.”
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All of the candidates will square off in the June 7 primary using election maps that the incumbents unsuccessfully fought in court, saying the maps were drawn to make their re-elections more difficult.
In Trustee Area 2, which includes Costa Mesa, Cypress, Huntington Beach, Los Alamitos, Seal Beach, and portions of Fountain Valley, Irvine and Newport Beach, incumbent and current board President Barke will face two challengers: Martha Fluor and Christopher R. Ganiere.
Barke wrote in her candidate statement that she is running for re-election to continue to advocate “for students and parental rights.”
Fluor is a former member of the Newport-Mesa Unified School Board and a past president of the California School Boards Association. She wrote in her candidate statement that she wants to see school boards committed to ensuring that students receive an excellent education in safe, well-equipped schools, “instead of squandering millions of dollars on lawsuits against the State and the OC Superintendent of Schools.”
Ganiere, an architect, described himself on LinkedIn as “not a status quo candidate.” Ganiere wrote that he wants students who are home schooled to be able to join school activities and he’s against mask mandates and what he called “medical apartheid.”
In Trustee Area 4, which includes all of or part of Buena Park, Fullerton, Garden Grove, La Habra, La Palma, Stanton and Westminster, incumbent Trustee Tim Shaw faces three candidates: Paulette Chaffee, David M. Choi and Ellisa Kim.
Shaw, in his candidate statement, wrote that “parents should be empowered with choices in their children’s education.”
Chaffee is a former teacher, speech therapist and attorney who shares a law office with her husband, Don Chaffee, chairman of the Orange County Board of Supervisors. She ran against Shaw in 2020, finishing in third place. In her candidate statement, she criticized the board for spending $3 million “of taxpayers’ money on frivolous lawsuits instead of on resources for struggling schools and families.”
Candidate Choi is an an accountant. He has not yet filed a statement with the Orange County Registrar of Voters or posted readily available information about himself online.
Kim, who describes herself as a business owner and parent, said in her candidate statement that as the daughter of poor first-generation immigrants and the first in her family to graduate from college, she wants to be “a strong advocate for diversity, equity and inclusion.”
In Trustee Area 5, which covers much of south Orange County, incumbent Trustee Lisa Sparks will square off against Sherine Smith, a former superintendent of the Laguna Beach Unified School District.
Sparks, who is dean of Chapman University’s School of Communication, wrote she has “been fighting for parental rights.” Sparks touted her support for public education, including charter schools, and her opposition to “government directives that impede learning outcomes.”
Smith, who previously worked as a teacher, principal and deputy superintendent in the Capistrano Unified School District, wrote in her statement that she will focus on expanding career technical training for high school students and “redirect tax dollars wasted on lawsuits to programs, training, and small class sizes so teachers can reach every student.”
Unlike other elections on the June 7 ballot, which lead to run-offs in November, winners for the Orange County Board of Education seats and the Superintendent job will be settled in the primary.