Incumbents Retain College, School Board Seats

In a race where voters decided against rocking the political boat, incumbent Santa Monica-Malibu Board of Education members Mary Kay Kamath, Connie Jenkins and Peggy Lyons were handed convincing victories over three challengers in Tuesday’s election.

Kamath led all candidates with 23,510 votes, followed by Jenkins with 22,149 and Lyons with 20,744. Challenger Mark Borenstein came in fourth with 14,923, followed by Carol Izad with 12,771 and Thomas Kayn with 10,057.

College Trustees Race

Similarly, in the race for three seats on the Santa Monica College Board Trustees, incumbents Ilona Jo Katz, Blyden Boyle and Pat Nichelson were chosen over challengers Anita Walker and Dennis M. Dwyer.

Katz placed first with 26,297 votes, Boyle second with 24,469 and Nichelson with 22,686. Walker was fourth with 12,714 and Dwyer fifth with 5,620.

In the Santa Monica-Malibu school board race, Kamath described Tuesday’s victory as a “strong vote of confidence in the leadership ability of the three incumbents and the directions that we have been taking.”

She said the incumbents received another mandate when the voters approved Proposition TT, a measure to extend for 5 years an annual $58 tax on each parcel of land in the district. The measure, which needed a two-thirds vote to win, was approved 33,323 to 11,141.

With the passage of Proposition TT, the district is assured that it will continue to receive $1.6 million in additional taxes each year for the next five years. The revenue will help school officials plug the gap in financing caused by declining enrollment. The district was forced to dip into its reserves for $1.2 million to balance its $41.8-million budget for the 1988-89 school year.

The district’s financial plight is only one of many immediate concerns facing the board. “It’s back to business as usual,” Lyons said. “One of the most important goals is to seek new and creative ways of raising money.”

Also high on the list of goals is the desire to help high school students who are considered “at risk” of dropping out of school.

“We are concerned that the bottom 20% of the students at the high school are not doing well,” Kamath said. “We are doing a great job helping the college-bound students, the students from upper-income and middle-income backgrounds, but the students at the bottom continue to have problems.”

Jenkins echoed the concerns of other board members. “We have to look at developing programs specifically aimed at helping the marginal students,” she said. “These programs have to reach students in the elementary schools because if you wait until high school, it is too late.”

‘Community Support’

The margin of support given the incumbents, Jenkins said, “underscores the community support for our direction.”

And in many ways, the direction may also be influenced by those who contested the incumbents in Tuesday’s race. All three challengers said they plan to remain active.

“I plan to remain involved in the district and possibly try again (for election) in another two years,” Borenstein said.

Kayn, who had criticized the board as being “too liberal,” said that his long-shot run served a purpose.

“They needed to be challenged,” he said. “It gives credibility to those who disagree with them, to the people who are moderate. It shows that they can’t just shrug us off.”

The winners in the race for the college board of trustees also said their victories amounted to a vote of confidence from the public.

Incumbents Katz, Boyle and Nichelson said that one of the priorities during the next four years is to improve child care for students and staff at the college.