The deadline for a candidate to file paperwork to be on the ballot for local school board elections was Friday.
In total, 15 seats across the six local districts will be voted upon on Nov. 5. According to the Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk’s office, there are 27 candidates who have submitted their paperwork to the county to be on the ballot.
However, the deadline for certain races was extended until Friday, according to the County Clerk’s office. Those races are: Santa Clarita Community College District Trustee Area 3 and Castaic Union School District Trustee Area A.
College of the Canyons
Four seats for the Santa Clarita Community College District board of trustees, which oversees College of the Canyons, will be on the ballot in November, including one special election.
That seat, representing Area 1, which encompasses Stevenson Ranch, Castaic, Val Verde and Newhall, was previously held by Chuck Lyon. He resigned from the board in May and the board later approved a special election to be consolidated with the general election.
Two candidates have filed to be on the ballot for that seat: Michelle Kampbell and Darlene Trevino.
Kampbell has lived in the Santa Clarita Valley for 15 years, according to a news release announcing her candidacy. The release added that she recently earned her bachelor’s degree in public administration management from California State University, Northridge, and has previously worked in aerospace compliance and as a casework manager for the state Assembly. She is a recruiter for a statewide nonprofit.
Trevino is the founder and CEO of Trevino Law Firm, a Palmdale-based firm that specializes in personal injury cases. She has awarded scholarships to students in the Antelope Valley School District and has volunteered to help with that district’s mock trial program, according to her bio on the Trevino Law Firm website.
Running to represent Area 2, which encompasses parts of Valencia and Saugus, are Edel Alonso, the current board president, and Scott Schauer.
Alonso has been on the board since being elected in 2016 and has been an SCV resident since 1987. She previously was a counselor for the William S. Hart Union High School District, a counselor and professor at COC and an adjunct faculty member at University of La Verne.
Schauer is the current president of the SCV Sheriff’s Station Foundation, founder of the Santa Clarita Soccer Center and owner of numerous other businesses, according to his bio on the Sheriff’s Foundation website. He currently works for Daum Commercial Real Estate in Valencia.
Three candidates so far have filed to run for the Area 3 seat, which covers parts of Saugus, Valencia and Newhall. They are Fred Arnold, Tasha Hoggatt and Andrew Taban, though more could file with the county by Friday.
Arnold, the current president of the COC Foundation, is a mortgage professional with 32 years of experience and has served on the board for the Child & Family Center, the SCV Disaster Coalition, the SCV Chamber of Commerce and the Our Lady of Perpetual Help school board. He has four kids and has finished 35 Ironman competitions.
Hoggatt is a local author who wrote “What Makes You Great?” a book that speaks on “the power of faith, love, forgiveness and life,” according to its entry on Amazon.
Taban is a field representative for Assemblywoman Pilar Schiavo, D-Chatsworth. He previously ran for a seat on the William S. Hart Union High School District governing board in 2022 and is a former COC student with more than 15 years of experience in statewide policy development and working with at-risk youth, according to his campaign website.
The final seat, for Area 4, which represents parts of Canyon Country and Sand Canyon, has two candidates: incumbent Jerry Danielsen and Sharlene Johnson.
Danielsen was appointed to the board in 2023 and graduated from Hart High and COC. He owns Busy Signal Studios, a Canyon Country-based recording studio, and is co-owner of Pantheon Media.
Johnson is a local real estate agent who previously applied for the seat in 2023 that eventually went to Danielsen. She is a member of the COC Foundation board and has collaborated with multiple nonprofits such as the SCV Boys & Girls Club and the WiSH Education Foundation.
William S. Hart Union High School District
Two seats will be up for election for the Hart district, one representing the northwest section of the district and the other representing the eastern side.
There are three candidates for Trustee Area 1, which covers Castaic and Valencia high schools as well as Rio Norte Junior High and Academy of the Canyons. They are incumbent Linda Storli, Aakash Ahuja and Gloria Mercado-Fortine.
Storli is a former Hart district teacher who was elected to the governing board in 2015 and is the current president. She is a real estate agent with 25 years of experience in the SCV.
Ahuja, a psychiatrist serving within the California State Prison System and a resident of Santa Clarita for a decade, moved to the United States from India more than two decades ago. A news release announcing his candidacy said he has been regularly attending board meetings and “intimately familiarizing himself with the district’s dynamics and parents’ concerns.”
Mercado-Fortine served 16 years as a Hart district governing board member after previously serving on the Castaic Union School District governing board. She has also been a teacher and administrator at multiple school districts as well as serving as the president of the SCV Sheriff’s Foundation board of directors.
Running to fill the seat representing Area 4, which covers Canyon High School and Sierra Vista Junior High, are incumbent Erin Wilson and Eric Anderson.
Wilson was appointed to the board last year following the resignation of James Webb. She has taught in classrooms for nonprofits and has five children who all graduated from the Hart district.
Anderson is a clinical specialist/respiratory therapist who has two children in the Sulphur Springs Union School District. He was in the running to be appointed to the board last year before Wilson was chosen.
Castaic Union School District
Three seats are on the ballot for the Castaic district, but only one will have a true race.
The seats for Areas C and D both have only the incumbents listed as candidates: Fred Malcomb for Area C and Vince Titiriga for Area D. Malcomb has been on the board since 2015 and is a former Santa Clarita ROTC instructor and is now a counselor at Palmdale Aerospace Academy. Titiriga was appointed to the board in 2023 and is currently a senior water treatment operator with the SCV Water Agency.
Two new candidates will be looking to fill the seat for Trustee Area A, with incumbent Janene Maxon not on the county’s current list of candidates. The candidates who have filed ahead of Friday’s extended deadline are Erik Richardson and Steven Sansone.
Richardson is a former field representative for Sen. Scott Wilk, R-Santa Clarita, when Wilk was in the state Assembly.
Sansone is the managing director for Sage View, a wealth management practice firm.
Newhall School District
Two seats are up for election in the Newhall School District but one has only the incumbent listed as running.
Isaiah Talley, currently the representative for Trustee Area 4, was first appointed to the board in 2016 before winning reelection in 2020. He owns two local businesses.
Sue Solomon, currently the board president, is running against Mayra Cuellar to represent Trustee Area 5.
Cuellar is a former Newhall district secretary and co-chair of the Newhall Educational Support Professionals, the union representing classified staff in the district.
Solomon was first elected to the board in 1999 and currently serves as chair of the SCV School Board Trustees Association.
Saugus Union School District
Three seats are on the ballot for the Saugus Union School District, though two have only the incumbents listed as running.
Matt Watson, the current board president, is the only candidate listed as running to represent Trustee Area 4, while Patti Garibay, appointed to the board in 2023, is the only one listed for Area 1.
The latter is running in a special election that would see the seat be up for election again in 2026.
The seat for Area 3 has two candidates listed: incumbent Katherine Cooper and Mark White.
Cooper has been on the board since 2020 and is an accountant. She launched her own practice in 2016.
White is a branch manager at Golden Empire Mortgage, where he has worked for 36 years. He has previously run for Santa Clarita City Council.
Sulphur Springs Union School District
Only two candidates have filed their paperwork with the county, both incumbents.
Rochelle “Shelley” Weinstein is running unopposed for Trustee Area 1, while Denis Defigueiredo is running unopposed for Area 2.
