Election Wrapup : Conservatives Gain Board Seats in Santa Clarita School Districts

SANTA CLARITA —  Voters backed the existing leadership in four of the five Santa Clarita Valley school board races, but conservative candidates secured one seat in each of the three district contests they entered.

Conservative candidates called for fiscal restraint, a back-to-basics approach to education and often supported the controversial state voucher initiative that most current public school officials vehemently opposed. More moderate candidates suggested that some of the conservatives were promoting Christian ideals.

Among the more surprising results was the election of conservative Peter Warren to the William S. Hart Union High School District board.

A resident with no children or prior relationship to the district, who campaigned strongly in favor of the voucher initiative, Warren and fellow newcomer Patricia Hanrion toppled two incumbents despite the resounding defeat of the measure statewide.

Warren said he tapped into anti-incumbent sentiment, although neither he nor reelected trustee William Dinsenbacher were able to identify its cause.

“I tried to let the voters know I was for Proposition 174. If they were aware of that, maybe they looked at it as ‘at least he’s an independent thinker,’ ” Warren said.

Warren pooled his campaign efforts with fellow conservative Doug Bryce, president of the Santa Clarita Valley Young Republicans, who was in turn elected to the Saugus Union School District board.

He placed third behind incumbents Betty Lund and Eileen Connelly in a field of nine candidates.

“I’m never surprised at what the electorate does,” said Lund, who received the highest number of votes on her way to a fifth term. “I think with both of the incumbents being reelected, it shows that people are generally satisfied.”

Three conservative candidates joined in running for the Sulphur Springs School District race, but only Gary DeRevere earned a seat. Incumbent Kerry Clegg was reelected with the highest tally and newcomer Sheldon Wigdor placed second.

Voters meanwhile supported the existing leadership in two Santa Clarita Valley races that focused on school superintendents. Candidate slates in the Castaic Union and Newhall school districts were divided over allegations of wrongdoing by their respective superintendents.

John Castagna, Susan Edwards and incumbent Michael McCabe were elected over incumbent Zandra Stanley and her husband, David Rapoport.

“I thought we would be closer, but we were very polarized,” Stanley said of the results that put her a distant fourth and Rapoport fifth of five candidates.

Stanley has been a vocal critic of Supt. J. Michael McGrath and his handling of district issues including the bilingual education program and Central Kitchen food service operations.

“By the end of the race they were campaigning against me,” McGrath said. “Somebody should have told them I wasn’t running.”

A similar result occurred in Castaic, with Dirk Gosda, Nora Emmons and incumbent Irene Massey outpolling an anti-superintendent slate of incumbent Gloria Mercado, Wendi Milka and Ethel Matlen.

Mercado criticized the board for poor test scores, the need to maintain school buses and Supt. Scott Brown’s use of a district credit card to purchase personal items that he later repaid.

Gosda, the race’s top vote-getter, said issues raised by Mercado do need to be addressed, but will not be an ongoing focus for trustees.

Brown praised the election outcome in a prepared statement Wednesday, called the winning slate “visionary, not vindictive, realistic, not retaliatory and concerned, not combative.”