Burbank school board candidates are taking the frugal route, finance records show

In the race for the Burbank school board, the three candidates running for two seats have spent little to nothing on their campaigns ahead of Tuesday’s primary election.

The highest fundraiser so far is newcomer Steve Frintner, according to campaign statements.

Frintner is the immediate past president of the Burbank Council PTA who is competing for a seat against two incumbents, Larry Applebaum and Charlene Tabet.

Join the conversation on Facebook >>

Between January of last year through Feb. 11 of this year, Frintner had raised $3,195 with the majority — $2,500 — a loan he made to himself.

A small circle of family, friends and co-workers have also supported Frintner’s campaign with their combined donations totaling less than $700.

In all, Frintner has spent nearly $1,000 on lawn signs and envelopes for donations, according to his paperwork.

For a first-time school board candidate, Frintner said he didn’t set out to raise or spend a lot of money on his campaign, just enough to make his name visible to residents in his race against two incumbents.

“My preference would be not to spend that much,” he said. “I wasn’t anticipating raising a lot. That’s the way it’s played out.”

The Burbank Teachers’ Union endorsement of Frintner — the only candidate they’ve backed in this race — helped spread the word about his candidacy through the association’s mailers and phone banking efforts, he said.

“I’m learning as I go. I feel like it’s going well,” Frintner said. “It’s tough to beat incumbents. I’m optimistic, but I’m not overly optimistic.”

Meanwhile, school board President Larry Applebaum, who is looking to be reelected to the seat he first won in 2005, filed paperwork confirming he would receive less than $2,000 in contributions and spend less than $2,000 on his campaign.

He had about 400 signs left over from his last run four years ago, when he was more focused on the Measure S bond campaign than he was on his own, he said.

Without a need to buy new signs, Applebaum said he’s also running on his experience.

“I have a 12-year record,” he said. “People who follow what’s going on in the school district already have a good idea about who I am. You either think I’ve done a good job, or you think I haven’t done a good job.”

For the past four years, Applebaum has focused on making sure the Measure S bond funds deliver on promises school officials made when voters passed the bond in 2013 to modernize the school district and make extensive infrastructure repairs.

“My track record is all of that,” he said. “If it is good enough, allow me to finish (in) the next four years what we set out to accomplish. I believe at the end of the next four-year cycle, 100% of what we promised will have been delivered.”

His fellow incumbent Charlene Tabet, first elected to the board four years ago, has not raised a single dollar for her campaign so far.

Instead, as an organizer of the upcoming “State of the Schools” breakfast on March 9, which Burbank Unified launched this year after more than a decade’s hiatus, Tabet’s has recently put her effort into raising money to support academic and arts programs.

As part of the event’s “90 for 90” campaign, she’s been coordinating with fellow organizers to raise $90,000 from organizations who each volunteer to donate $1,000 in recognition of Burbank Unified’s 90 years.

While she believes that raising money for her campaign would be “self-serving,” compared to her current focus in collecting donations to benefit students, Tabet said she may decide to seek campaign contributions if she isn’t elected to the board during Tuesday’s primary election.

Other than displaying some yard signs, Tabet is running on what she’s accomplished during the last four years on the board.

“We’ve been campaigning the last four years,” Tabet said of the two incumbents’ campaigns. “We do our job. We’ve got the best school district in the state.”

--

Kelly Corrigan, kelly.corrigan@latimes.com

Twitter: @kellymcorrigan