South County : 6 Challenge Trustees of Capistrano Unified

Six challengers will attempt to wrest three seats from incumbent candidates Nov. 5 when area voters cast ballots for trustees on the Capistrano Unified School Board.

While two of the incumbents, board president Paul Haseman and trustee Annette Gude, each face single challengers for their seats, board member Jan Overton, who was first elected in 1976, will square off against four contenders this year.

Candidates for Overton’s district, which includes Dana Point and western San Juan Capistrano, are James Long, an engineer; Winston Frost, an educator; David Colville, a teacher, and Cindi Waters, a homemaker. All four live in Dana Point.

Haseman, whose district includes all of Laguna Niguel, is being challenged by Victor Domines, a Laguna Niguel mortgage banker. Haseman was elected to the board in 1981.

Gude, who was appointed to the board in 1980 and elected in 1981, will be competing with Carol Cox, a real estate investor. Gude’s district includes portions of Mission Viejo.

While Citizens for Family Strength, a group opposed to the controversial “Family Life” curriculum unanimously adopted by the seven-member board in May, vowed to unseat the incumbents, a spokeswoman for the group said it has not yet endorsed any of the challengers.

Anita Burkett, founder of Citizens for Family Strength, which sought to block the program, which includes sex education and classes on drug and alcohol abuse, said Friday that the group plans to conduct interviews “to find those candidates who are sympathetic to our philosophy.”