HUNTINGTON BEACH : School District to End Special Elections

The Huntington Beach Union High School District board has voted to postpone its scheduled election this November until the 1992 general election.

The school district is Orange County’s third in recent months to abandon costly special board elections in favor of consolidating balloting into statewide elections. The Orange County registrar of voters estimates that the move will save the district about $50,000, district Supt. Lawrence Kemper said.

At Tuesday night’s board meeting, all five trustees said they favor special elections because they focus voters on educational issues. But they agreed, by a 4-1 margin, that those concerns are outweighed by the financial difference.

The board’s decision is part of an increasing trend among school districts since a 1985 state law enabled districts to join in general elections to save money. Only five of the county’s 27 school districts still hold special elections.

The district spent $72,000 on its last election in 1989, sharing the ballot and election costs with the Coast Community College District. However, the college district’s board voted in December to switch to general elections.

Registrar of voters officials estimated that the Nov. 5 election would have cost the district between $90,000 and $100,000. Instead, the district will probably pay $40,000 to $50,000 for next year’s election.

Trustees, who are faced in the coming months with making about $2.5 million in spending cuts, said they could not rationalize a vote now to double the cost of the next election.

“With this vote, we would be authorizing (up to) $100,000 for an election,” Trustee Bonnie Bruce said during the board’s debate. “It would be hard for me to do that, and then come back in the next two meetings or so to cut some very important (educational) programs.”

The board’s newest member, Michael S. Simons, who was sworn in just before casting his vote on the issue, agreed with the majority. Member Bonnie Castrey cast the board’s only dissenting vote.

“Without . . . any substantiated figures, I find it hard to believe we’re going to save any substantial amount of money,” Castrey said. “Besides, I have a philosophical problem (with the change) because of the lack of newspaper print and other attention education gets during general-election years.”