3 Meet Deadlines for 2 School Board Seats

Three people met the filing deadlines to run for two seats on the five-member school board in Culver City.

Bess Drust, a member of the board for 12 years, met the Aug. 9 filing deadline for incumbent candidates. Madeline Ehrlich, a registered nurse, and Michael Eskridge, a florist and teacher, filed by the Aug. 14 deadline for challengers.

Board member Linda Price chose not to seek reelection so she can concentrate on her career as an accountant and spend more time with her family.

Drust, elected to the board in 1979, is seeking her fourth term.

Eskridge, 42, was born and reared in Culver City. He runs a family business, Culver City Flower Shop, and teaches flower arrangement for adults at Culver City High School.

He is chairman of the district’s education committee, a discussion and information-sharing group that serves as a liaison between the district and community.

Ehrlich, 49, is a free-lance registered nurse specializing in medical exams for insurance companies. Her involvement in Culver City education includes serving as PTA president, helping to form the Culver City education foundation and serving on a variety of school district committees.

At the state level, Ehrlich served as a parent representative on the Department of Education’s model curriculum committee and on the special task force on elementary education.

She has lived in the city for 16 years.

School board members and activists agree that two topics that will get a lot of attention during the campaign for the Nov. 5 election are where to find alternative sources of money and which learning programs should be cut, saved or restored.

Voters will also be confronted with Measure E, or the school parcel tax. If the measure receives a two-thirds vote, parcels of land in the city would be taxed $98 each year for four years, bringing about $1 million annually to the school district. The money would not be available until next school year.