HUNTINGTON BEACH : New Trustee Chosen President of Board

In a surprise move, the Ocean View School District board this week chose a recently elected trustee as its new president, bypassing an 11-year board member.

Lottie Hobbs, one of three new trustees elected Nov. 6, was unanimously chosen as board president for the coming year.

Hobbs, who criticized many of the previous board’s actions during her campaign, entered the race after helping mobilize a successful parents’ effort last spring to persuade the board not to close Golden View School.

Trustees Carol Kanode and Tracy Pellman, who along with Hobbs compose a newly elected board majority, said Wednesday that Hobbs’ election as president did not amount to a snubbing of veteran trustee Sheila Marcus, the board’s clerk for the past year.

Kanode and Pellman said they favored Hobbs because she was the top vote-getter in last month’s race for four seats, has demonstrated strong leadership skills and will help chart a new course for the board.

Pellman said she believes the election results “clearly show that people felt the district should have some new leadership and that’s all I was pushing for.”

Marcus said she was surprised that a freshman trustee was elected president but added she does not interpret the move as a vote against her. “Maybe if these three people knew me, I’d feel that way,” Marcus said. “But it’s hard to feel snubbed by people who don’t know you. . . . We as a board weren’t really spectacular last year, so maybe it’s a good idea to a get fresh perspective on things.”

Hobbs, who will serve a one-year term as president, succeeds Charles Osterlund, who was voted off the board last month after a 15-year tenure.