ELECTIONS ’88 : Meyers Ahead by 4%, McCormick by 12% : Education Board Incumbents Leading

With about half the vote tallied early Wednesday morning, two incumbents held the lead in their races for the little-noticed Orange County Board of Education race.

Sheila Meyers, the appointed incumbent in Area 2 --encompassing Garden Grove, Huntington Beach, Los Alamitos and Stanton--led two challengers, Norma L. Vander Molen and Mercedes (Micky) McCullough. Meyers held about a 4% lead over Vander Molen, while McCullough was a distant third.

In Area 4, which includes Brea, Fullerton, La Habra, Mission Viejo, El Toro, Orange, Placentia, Tustin and Yorba Linda, three-term incumbent Dean McCormick was leading challenger Nickolas A. Siokos. McCormick outdistanced his opponent by about a 12% margin.

“Carpetbagger” Charge

Meyers’ race drew interest because of a “carpetbagger” charge against her last year when she moved back to Orange County and was appointed to temporarily fill a vacancy created by the death of board member Frances Murphy. Meyers had been an elected member of the five-person county board before she resigned in 1986 to move to Washington state. She moved back in 1987.

The incumbents ran largely on their records, while the challengers criticized the way the board deals with local school districts.

The county Board of Education controls the purse strings for the $50-million annual budget of the county Department of Education. That department administers special education for the disabled, Juvenile Court schools and camps, and budget supervision of all 28 local school districts in Orange County.