Early results showed Katherine Cooper and Matthew Watson in the lead for seats on the Saugus Union School District board Tuesday night, while incumbent Linda Storli and James Webb led for seats on the William S. Hart Union High School District board, according to preliminary election returns.
It was too early to call any of the races Tuesday night, as vote centers and additional mail-in ballots remained to be counted.
Saugus Union School District
Two seats were up for election in the Saugus Union School District. Cooper was leading Tuesday night for Trustee Area No. 3 and Watson led for Trustee Area No. 4.
Cooper couldn’t be reached for comment Tuesday night, but previously said, “I will represent, equally, all the students in the Saugus District. I will fight for equitable opportunity, for safety, for focus on mental health, to improve literacy in our district and to bring educational justice to those students furthest from it.”
Cooper was leading opponent Christian Gadbois with 3,684 (52.75%) of the votes tallied as of 8:45 p.m. and Watson was leading Sage Rafferty with 5,325 (63.96%) of the early votes.
“I will bring my unique perspective to collaborate with parents, giving them a greater voice and support teachers with the resources they need in order to provide students with the best education anywhere,” Watson said in an earlier comment, as he was not available Tuesday evening.
William S. Hart Union High School District
Board President Linda Storli was leading in her effort to keep her seat representing Trustee Area No. 1, while Webb held a lead for Trustee Area No. 4 of the Hart district.
“I’m very hopeful, and I’m very excited,” said Webb. “I know we’re still early with the results and we want to make sure we get every vote counted and hear all the voices in Santa Clarita.”
Storli ran against two candidates, Alyssa Williams and Gordon Kirkpatrick, and was leading with 7,513 (45.79%) of the votes counted as of this report. Webb ran against incumbent Steve Sturgeon and was leading with 9,957 (54.69%) of the early vote tallies.
“I’ve worked hard these last five years as a board member and the past year as (the) board president,” said Storli. “We’ve been putting out fires and moving forward even though it’s been a hard year. I don’t want to assume anything but I think I may have pulled this off. I’m keeping my fingers crossed.”
The elections for board members in the Newhall, Castaic Union and Sulphur Springs Union school districts were canceled by the L.A. County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk on Aug. 12 due to candidates running unopposed.
Steve Doyle, Castaic Union School District superintendent, acknowledged two candidates during the Aug. 13 board meeting: Fred Malcomb and Janene Maxon will be on the board of trustees as they were the only people running for each available seat.
This resulted in the registrar cancelling the November election for trustee areas Nos. 1, 2 and 3 of the Sulphur Springs Union School District. This means that Shelley Weinstein (Area No. 1); Denis DeFigueiredo (Area No. 2); and Paola Jellings (Area No. 3) all are expected to remain on the board.
Numbers are preliminary counts done by the Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk and will be updated as new information becomes available.
