Challenger Peggy Wolff and incumbent Jan Vickers received the most votes for two open seats on the Laguna Beach school board despite challenger Howard Hills’s endeavors to win in Tuesday’s election.
Wolff, the top vote-getter, received 39.1 percent of the tally and 6,029 votes. Vickers earned 35.8 percent or 5,532 votes and Hills garnered 25.1 percent or 3,874 votes.
“I’m humbled by my results,” Wolff said on Wednesday. “I’m in the trenches now.” Wolff said she is getting trained on how to serve now that she is a professional.
On election night, preliminary results showed Vickers out front with Wolff in second and Hills in third.
Wolff and Vickers both stayed at home with their family to watch results. Hills joined a group of supporters along with those of city council candidate Steve Dicterow at Mozambique restaurant, where raucous GOP supporters watched election returns and cheered as presidential candidate Donald Trump rolled up electoral college votes. “I had a lot of fun running,” said Hills, who knocked on 4,000 doors to introduce himself to families in the school district.
Final results by the Orange County Registrar’s Office showed Hills took the majority of votes in only one precinct, in the gated communities of Crystal Cove in Newport Coast, where he campaigned door to door with volunteer high school and middle school students. He said that experience was a highpoint in his campaign.
“We’re proud of the campaign, grateful for the support,” said Hills, who thinks the campaign allowed him to accomplish a personal goal as he also served as president of his Laguna Beach High School class from 1969-1970.
Hills said he felt running for office was a civic duty and something he “wanted to do before riding off into the sunset. Maybe it’s time for a new generation to see what the school board is about.” While he said he had no regrets about the race, he admitted “there were times when it was not fun. I was a lot happier when not reading the newspapers.”
Hills said he plans to spend more time with his family and less devoted to school issues.
Asked if he would consider running for school board again, Hills said, “I’m not keeping my (campaign) signs.”
Vickers, who collects her campaign signs and reuses them, will become president of the board for the fifth time when she and Wolff are sworn into office Dec. 13. Vickers said that she and her husband, Don Vickers, campaigned by personally leaving 10,000 flyers on registered voters doors.
Reached by phone on Wednesday, she said “It seems I had a lot of positive response.” Vickers says she is glad to move forward now, commending the new superintendent with holding the course while awaiting the outcome of the election. “Now that this is off the table, you can plan for what’s going on.” Vickers says she will pursue holding more informal study sessions and hopes for more parent participation in shaping recommendations. “We’re in a good place now,” she said.
Vickers has currently served on the board for 16 consecutive years and had served for 10 consecutive years prior to that.
Great news for LBUSD!!!