Change coming to school board

Jan Vickers will run for a fifth consecutive term as a Laguna Beach Unified School District trustee, while board President William Landsiedel will not seek reelection this fall.

Vickers and Landsiedel confirmed their decisions in phone interviews Thursday.

For Vickers, who is in her 26th year on the school board, the decision came down to what she considers the importance of continuity on a governing body.

“Last election we brought two [new trustees onboard] and we had not had that in a while,” said Vickers, 69. “I feel that I would be giving up on that in a sense.

“We will also have a new leader, another big transition.”

The five trustees are currently conducting interviews as they search for the district’s next superintendent to replace Sherine Smith, who is retiring in June after six years with Laguna Beach Unified.

Vickers has lived continuously in Laguna since 1968 and was hired as an adult-education instructor in 1972.

“I’m committed to the district and still believe I can do a really good job,” Vickers said. “I like doing it. I like going to events, back-to-school nights.”

In explaining his decision not to seek a third term, Landsiedel, 66, said work commitments are adding up and he wants to spend more time with his family. Landsiedel, a Laguna Beach resident, runs a law practice in Laguna Hills.

He added that by June 2017, the younger of his two children will have graduated from Laguna Beach High, so he will not have any kids attending district schools.

“I feel like, for the people on the school board, it’s best if their kids are in the system and have a dog in the fight,” he said.

Looking back on the last eight years, Landsiedel said the district has “improved dramatically,” noting Laguna schools receiving national and state awards for benchmarks such as academic achievement and teaching strategies.

“I hope in some small part, I contributed to that,” he said.

For potential candidates mulling a campaign run, Landsiedel, who serves as board representative to the SchoolPower Endowment Foundation, a nonprofit that supports the schools, and the district’s technology committee, said, “Understand how much commitment it takes [serving on the school board]. It can take 10 to 20 hours many weeks and some weeks take more than 30.”

The other three trustees — Ketta Brown, Carol Normandin and Dee Perry — aren’t facing reelection until 2018.