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Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District elections (2014)
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Four seats on the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District Board of Education were up for general election on November 4, 2014.
Three at-large incumbents, Oscar de la Torre, Laurie Lieberman and Ralph Mechur ran for re-election.[1][2] Incumbent Nimish Patel did not run for re-election. The three incumbents who ran faced challengers Patricia Finer, Craig Foster, Dhun May and Richard Tahvildaran-Jesswein.[3] Incumbents Oscar de la Torre and Laurie Lieberman and challengers Craig Foster and Richard Tahvildaran-Jesswein won the four at-large seats.
About the district
Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District is located in Los Angeles County, California. The county seat of Los Angeles County is Los Angeles.[4] Los Angeles County is home to 10,017,068 residents, according to the United States Census Bureau.[5] In the 2011-2012 school year, Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District was the 141st-largest school district by enrollment in California and served 11,468 students.[6]
Demographics
Los Angeles County underperformed in comparison to the rest of California in terms of higher education achievement in 2012. The United States Census Bureau found that 29.5 percent of Los Angeles County residents aged 25 years and older had attained a bachelor's degree compared to 30.5 percent for California as a whole. The median household income for Los Angeles County was $56,241 compared to $61,400 for the entire state. The percentage of people below poverty level for Los Angeles County was 17.1 percent while it was 15.3 percent statewide.[5]
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Note: Percentages for race and ethnicity may add up to more than 100 percent because respondents may report more than one race and the Hispanic/Latino ethnicity may be selected in conjunction with any race. Read more about race and ethnicity in the census here.
Voter and candidate information
The Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District Board of Education consists of seven members elected at-large to four-year terms. There was no primary election, and the general election was held on November 4, 2014. Four seats were up for election in 2014, and three seats will be up for election in 2016.[1][2]
School board candidates had to file with their county elections department during the candidate filing period. The filing period began July 14, 2014, and ended August 8, 2014. To vote in the 2014 general election, voters had to register by October 20, 2014. Voters could request vote-by-mail ballots from October 6, 2014, through October 28, 2014.[8]
Elections
2014
Candidates
At-large
- Oscar de la Torre
- Incumbent
- Laurie Lieberman
- Incumbent
- Ralph Mechur
- Incumbent
- Patricia Finer
- Craig Foster
- Dhun May
- Richard Tahvildaran-Jesswein
Election results
| Party | Candidate | Vote % | Votes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nonpartisan | Laurie Lieberman Incumbent |
20.8% | 15,247 | |
| Nonpartisan | Craig Foster |
16.5% | 12,126 | |
| Nonpartisan | Richard Tahvildaran-Jesswein |
16.7% | 12,277 | |
| Nonpartisan | Oscar de la Torre Incumbent |
16.3% | 11,990 | |
| Nonpartisan | Ralph Mechur Incumbent | 15.7% | 11,522 | |
| Nonpartisan | Dhun May | 7% | 5,169 | |
| Nonpartisan | Patricia Finer | 7% | 5,148 | |
| Total Votes | 73,479 | |||
| Source: Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk, "Los Angeles County Election Results," accessed January 2, 2015 | ||||
Endorsements
The Los Angeles County Democratic Party, Santa Monica-Malibu Classroom Teachers Association, Education Workers of SEIU Local 99, Santa Monicans for Renters’ Rights and the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor endorsed Ralph Mechur, Oscar de la Torre, Laurie Lieberman and Richard Tahvildaran-Jesswein.[9][10]
Advocates for Malibu Public Schools' (AMPS) PAC endorsed Craig Foster, Laurie Lieberman, Richard Tahvildaran-Jesswein and Oscar de la Torre.[11]
Campaign finance
At the time of this election, the Los Angeles Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk did not publish school board candidate campaign finance reports online. Ballotpedia staffers requested this information, but the only free method of viewing the files was at their office.
The Los Angeles Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk targeted the end of 2018 to make school board candidate campaign finance reports available online for free. From that point forward, Ballotpedia began including campaign finance data for Los Angeles County school board candidates.[12][13][14]
Past elections
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What was at stake?
2014
Issues in the district
PCB levels thousands of times higher than legal limits across the district
Supermodel Cindy Crawford and actor Josh Malina joined fellow parents and community members in the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District at a rally in August 2014 to protest the toxic levels of cancer-causing chemicals called PCBs that were found in soil and caulk samples around district schools. The rally came after a year-long battle between parents and administrators in the district.[15]
The levels of PCBs in the schools are thousands of times higher than the legal limit of 50 parts-per-million, according to two independent studies that were submitted to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). A third report from July 2014 showed the same results. These high levels have been attributed to thyroid cancer and other illnesses in teachers by the local interest groups Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER) and Malibu Unites. At the rally, Crawford and her husband offered to pay for further testing at schools across the district.[15]
A few days after the rally, PEER and Malibu Unites announced they intended to sue the Santa Monica-Malibu School District as well as the EPA for violating the Toxic Substances Control Act. State law requires the groups to wait 60 days for mediation purposes after announcing their intentions before a lawsuit can be filed. A senior counsel for PEER outlined what the district could do to avoid the lawsuit, including testing caulk in district buildings built before 1980 and then removing any caulk that found to be above the legal limit. The two groups also demanded that teachers and students be moved to different classrooms until that process is completed.[16]
During the waiting period before a lawsuit could be filed, parents sought involvement from the Malibu City Council. Mayor Skylar Peak asked that a city council resolution demanding the removal of any toxic chemicals in buildings across the district be drafted and sent to officials at the county, state and federal levels.[17]
Dozens of children have also been taken out of school and taught at home or at a micro-school set up at Pepperdine University. Many parents who could not afford to take their children out of school warned them to stay away from certain areas that were deemed unsafe. The district started truancy hearings against at least one parent who took her child out of school for a lesson that was taught in a particular building, though the parent offered to teach that lesson herself in a different building.[18]
Key deadlines
The following dates were key deadlines for the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District election in 2014:[19][20]
| Deadline | Event |
|---|---|
| July 14, 2014 | First day for candidates to file nomination documents |
| August 8, 2014 | Last day for candidates to file nomination documents |
| October 6, 2014 | First day to request vote-by-mail ballot |
| October 6, 2014 | First pre-election report due |
| October 20, 2014 | Last day to register to vote |
| October 23, 2014 | Second pre-election report due |
| October 28, 2014 | Last day to request vote-by-mail ballot |
| November 4, 2014 | Election Day |
| December 31, 2014 | Termination report due |
| February 2, 2015 | Semi-annual report due |
Additional elections on the ballot
- See also: California elections, 2014
This election shared the ballot with municipal elections, other school board elections and a special election for the Altadena Library District Special Parcel Tax measure.[2] It also shared the ballot with general elections for multiple state executive offices, seats in the U.S. House, as well as seats in the state Senate and the state Assembly.[21] A countywide measure was on the ballot as well. Measure P, which passed, asked voters to approve an annual special tax to continue funding for neighborhood park safety, gang prevention, recreation and wildlife protection from an expired voter-approved measure.[22]
Recent news
This section links to a Google news search for the term "Santa + Monica-Malibu + Unified + School + District + California"
See also
- California
- Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District, California
- California school board elections, 2014
- List of school board elections in 2014
- School board elections, 2014
- Los Angeles County, California ballot measures
- California ballot measures
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District, "SMMUSD Board of Education," accessed August 6, 2014
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk, "2014 Scheduled Elections," accessed August 6, 2014
- ↑ City of Santa Monica, "Potential Candidates List," accessed August 14, 2014
- ↑ Geology.com, "California County Map with County Seat Cities," accessed July 1, 2014
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 United States Census Bureau, "Los Angeles County, California," accessed July 1, 2014
- ↑ National Center for Education Statistics, "ELSI Table Generator," accessed April 22, 2014
- ↑ Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk, "Past Election Results," accessed July 1, 2014
- ↑ California Secretary of State, "Summary of November 4, 2014, General Election Calendar," accessed July 14, 2014
- ↑ Santa Monica Mirror, "Teachers, School Workers, Renters Join To Endorse SMMUSD Candidates," October 5, 2014
- ↑ Los Angeles County Democratic Party, "Endorsements," accessed October 16, 2014
- ↑ Malibu Surfside News, "AMPS announces endorsements for school board," October 13, 2014
- ↑ Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk, "Campaign Finance Reports," accessed July 2, 2014
- ↑ Daniel Anderson, “Email communication with Brenda Duran, Los Angeles County Public Information Officer," October 7, 2016
- ↑ Abbey Smith, “Email communication with Brenda Duran, Los Angeles County Public Information Officer," January 2, 2018
- ↑ 15.0 15.1 NBC Los Angeles, "Supermodel Cindy Crawford Offers to Pay for Chemical Testing at Malibu Schools," August 14, 2014
- ↑ The Malibu Times, "Impending Lawsuit Looms Over Santa Monica-Malibu School Board," September 24, 2014
- ↑ Los Angeles Register, "Malibu City Council hears pleas on toxic chemicals," September 9, 2014
- ↑ The Guardian, "Malibu divided over claims of toxic chemicals in public schools," October 17, 2014
- ↑ Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk, "Calendar of Events," accessed July 1, 2014
- ↑ Fair Political Practices Commission, "Filing Schedule for Candidates and Controlled Committees for Local Office Being Voted on November 4, 2014," accessed August 19, 2014
- ↑ Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk, "Los Angeles County Election Results June 3, 2014 - Statewide Direct Primary election," accessed July 2, 2014
- ↑ Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk, "Measures Appearing on the Ballot," accessed September 2, 2014
