The Laguna Beach Unified school board president won’t seek reelection in November, potentially creating an opening for a UC Irvine history professor.
Carol Normandin, an eight-year veteran of the school board, succeeded former president Peggy Wolff after she stepped down in late 2020. The two women led the board through an unprecedented pandemic that forced school closures and distance learning.
School board meetings convened to decide whether to reopen certain school sites to students and staff regularly erupted in fury expressed by disappointed parents.
“I’m an optimist so if we survived that being a board member this term would be the easiest four years ever,” Normandin said.
While Normandin believes it takes four years for school board members to absorb an understanding of the district’s policies and challenges, she also feels strongly about giving her neighbors an opportunity to enter public service.
“Democracy is based on stepping into that public space, giving, and then making space for others to participate,” she said.
Leading a public board through often heated discussion taught Normandin patience and gratitude, she said. She’s particularly thankful for the hard work displayed by district employees over the past decade.
“They are a phenomenal, synchronized team. It has been my pleasure and honor to watch their mastery of the profession,” Normandin said.
The districtwide effort to incorporate diversity, equity, and inclusion for all families remains unfinished but Normandin is confident the school board will continue its pursuit.
Joan Malczewski, an associate professor of history, qualified for the ballot after filing her candidate statement on Monday.
Malczewski earned her doctorate from Columbia University in 2002. She is currently a visiting scholar at the Stanford Graduate School of Education, where she is conducting research on the American Council on Education and its influence on higher education policy during the Cold War. Her book published by University of Chicago Press in 2016 examines the process of black education reform during the Jim Crow era in North Carolina and Mississippi.
A mother of five children, Malczewski said her youngest child moved to Top of the World Elementary in first grade and is now a fifth grader.
“This past year I volunteered two mornings each week at TOW and witnessed the extraordinary educational opportunities that our schools offer. I will support our committed educators and parents who care deeply about the needs of our children,” Malczewski wrote in her candidate statement.
Board member Dee Perry has also pulled papers declaring her candidacy but has not officially qualified. Board member James Kelly said in a phone interview Wednesday that he plans to seek reelection and is still completing his required paperwork.
The deadline to file nomination papers and declaration of candidacy is Friday. After the Independent went to press, Kelly and Perry also qualified for the ballot.
“I finally feel that I’ve made it through orientation and I know how everything works and who all the players are. I feel that I can be much more helpful to the district at this time,” Kelly said.
Among Kelly’s most prized accomplishments are hiring a second school resource officer, a second nurse, and multiple counselors to support students’ social-emotional health.
We wrongly believe that voting for school board members is better than hiring the most competent. I’m not in favor of hiring someone who “a visiting scholar at the Stanford Graduate School of Education, where she is conducting research on the American Council on Education and its influence on higher education policy during the Cold War”. I don’t care about some obscure topic approved by her disertation committee and paid for by tax money, and neither do the kids. I’m in favor of hiring someone who doesn’t write her ‘research’ to establish herself in peer journals. We Need Local Normal Citizens Who Don’t Kow-Tow To Intellectuals. Her history includes more liberal toxicity than our children need. We need a normal citizen to step up and control the insantity. Not a UCI ‘part timer’ that we’ll pay a hundred k.