Letters to the Editor
No kids in schools? This election is still yours
You do not need a child in Laguna Beach schools to have something at stake in this School Board election.
On November 3, Laguna Beach voters will elect three of the five members of the LBUSD Board of Education. In one election, voters will choose a majority of the body responsible for governing one of this community’s most important public institutions.
Those five people do far more than attend meetings. They hire and evaluate the superintendent, adopt budgets and policies, approve labor agreements, curriculum, contracts and major facilities decisions. They also decide what gets funded, what gets deferred and what direction the district takes when priorities collide.
Voters will also consider Measure A, which would authorize up to $83 million in general-obligation bonds for school facility improvements. If approved, it would replace the existing school bond tax as it expires, at an expected rate of about $8.85 per $100,000 of assessed value. The board serving after this election would help decide how that work is prioritized and implemented over time.
That makes this election relevant far beyond households with children in LBUSD.
Parents will live with decisions affecting their children’s classrooms, teachers, programs and school experience. Employees will work under decisions involving leadership, compensation and district policy. Property owners help fund a public school system and have an interest in how public money, facilities and long-term obligations are managed. Every resident lives in a community shaped, in part, by the strength and stewardship of its public institutions.
You do not need to know every line of the district budget or watch every board meeting, but this election deserves more than recognizing a name and filling in a bubble.
Read past the ballot designation. Look at what candidates believe the job actually is. Look at how they approach governance, public money, superintendent oversight and disagreement. Look at the record they have built before asking for the authority to govern.
Three seats. Four-year terms.
That is a tremendous amount of responsibility being decided in a very small section of the ballot.
Whatever conclusions you reach about the candidates or Measure A, reach them deliberately.
This election belongs to all of Laguna Beach.
Erika Hennon
Aliso Viejo
LBUSD Parent
