Lawsuits filed against candidate for NMUSD school board raise concern from opponents; she alleges ‘smear’ job
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A Republican-backed candidate touting experience as an entrepreneur and running for a seat on the Newport-Mesa Unified School District’s board in a special election scheduled June 10 — which will cost taxpayers more than $400,000 — claims political opponents sought to “smear” her by misrepresenting a record of litigation filed against companies run by her and her ex-husband.
Andrea McElroy is one of two people seeking to become the trustee for district Area 5, which includes neighborhoods served by Newport Elementary, Ensign Intermediate and Newport Harbor High. She’s the parent of a former NMUSD student and the owner of Fair Play Active, a pickle ball-themed clothing brand, according to publicly available candidate forms.
Her campaign highlights a career with Microsoft “shaping digital advertising strategies during the dot-com boom.” She also owned the Paper House, a stationery store that had been in Newport Beach, according to her website.
The Balboa Bay Club sued the Paper House in 2007, claiming the store’s proprietor didn’t pay for advertising in the club’s monthly publication, Bay Window Magazine. The store was also sued in 2008 by its landlords for unpaid rent. A judge ruled in favor of the plaintiffs in both cases, resulting in the payment of $1,741 and $9,784 in damages, respectively.
Those were among six cases filed against companies run either by McElroy or in partnership with her ex-husband, Russell Young, involving allegations of unpaid rent, nonpayment of attorneys’ fees and breach of contract. Critics of her bid for a seat on NMUSD’s board say these raise concerns about her qualifications.
“As an entrepreneur, I can tell you that business owners in California are often targets of frivolous litigation,” McElroy said. “Business owners are often a target of false and malicious accusations, like those being leveled against me.”
“Dragged into some litigation”
One lawsuit filed by South Coast Trade Center 3, L.P. against McElroy — known as Andrea Young at the time — and her ex-husband in 2013 resulted in a dismissal for reasons not clear in readily available court records. In that case, the defendants were contracted to develop a retail market called OC Mart Mix and attract customers as well as vendors to lease stalls at their location in Costa Mesa. In their complaint the plaintiffs claimed that, even after three years of operating, “because of defendants’ poor management ... the company still had insufficient cash flow to satisfy the company’s obligations.”
Court records show that McElroy and Young attempted to launch other similar retail concepts. The company they formed, Union Market LLC, also operated the District at Tustin Legacy. Attorneys representing McElroy described it as a “thriving business for many years,” but hardship brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic led to the closure of many of its stores.
“Union Market fought in good faith to remain open at the District and to timely pay its monthly rent,” an attorney representing McElroy, Robert P. Gowe of the firm firm Goe, Forsythe & Hodges, wrote in a letter sent to media outlets. “However, Union Market was unable to maintain its monthly rental payments due to the loss of revenue.”
As a result, McElroy, Young and Union Market were sued for unpaid rent in 2022 by the company their business was leasing the Tustin property from, Vestar/Kimco Tustin LP.
McElroy’s attorneys note that she was dismissed as a plaintiff in that case. Judgment was rendered only against Union Market, awarding $747,843.98 in damages to Vestar/Kimco.
Vestar/Kimco filed a second lawsuit claiming $4.5 million in additional damages in 2023 against Union Market, McElroy and her current husband. Allegations against the latter were “frivolous and unfounded,” and he was later dismissed from that second case, Gowe said.
“Andrea has certain defenses to the 2023 Vestar lawsuit and disputes the allegations contained therein,” her attorney added.
In a statement, McElroy told the Daily Pilot she was “dragged into some litigation” with her ex-husband. She went on to say political opponents and “far-left blogs are now running around with half-truths and full lies about that history to demonize me.”
McElroy, under her former surname, was also listed among defendants in four additional suits filed for unpaid rent between 2009 and 2012 at various residences in Newport Beach. Those, as well as a 2011 case filed by Greater California Financial Services for an unpaid loan, also resulted in judgment in favor of plaintiffs.
The Daily Pilot was made aware of past litigation involving companies associated with McElroy by an Area 5 resident who acted independently, but is listed as among those endorsing her rival, candidate Kirstin Walsh.
Walsh, an occupational therapist and Newport Harbor High Parent Teacher Assn. president, said she and her campaign were not involved in researching McElroy’s legal history or the distribution of that information to the media or public.
Mail-in ballots for the election were delivered Monday, and an in-person voting center at Coastline College in room 119 will be open from May 31 through 8 p.m. on Election Day, June 10, according to the Orange County Registrar’s office.
Filling a vacant seat
The term for the position McElroy and Walsh are seeking ends in December 2026. It became vacant after former trustee Michelle Barto was elected to the Newport Beach City Council in November.
McElroy was among the four potential replacements considered at that time. She had support from board president Krista Weigand and trustee Lisa Pearson; they noted former trustee Barto was elected by about 65% of voters in the 2022 election, and said they wanted to appoint someone with views similar to hers.
Those who voted for Walsh highlighted her background of service in the district. During the special meeting that resulted in the PTA president’s appointment to the board on a 4-2 vote, trustee Ashley Anderson described Walsh as a person of balanced, open-minded judgment who made decisions “not based on national political things that are not necessarily relevant to us.”
Special election
Walsh held the position about five weeks before a petition drive garnered 361 votes, enough to override her appointment and force a special election. Laws protecting the privacy of those who signed that petition prohibit its release to the public.
The election may cost between $444,695 to $493,802 in public funds, according to the Orange County Registrar’s Office.
McElroy emerged as the sole candidate running against Walsh. Her list of endorsements includes Barto, Pearson, Newport Beach Mayor Joe Stapleton, the Republican Party of Orange County and that organization’s chairman, Will O’Neill, the former Newport Beach mayor.
Those endorsing Walsh include NMUSD trustees Anderson, Carol Crane, Michelle Murphy and Leah Ersoylu, as well as former Newport Beach Mayor Nancy Gardner.
Walsh said she was hesitant about entering the race, and only did so after learning that the costs incurred by the petition ousting her could not be undone even if she abstained from running. She said friends warned her pursuing public office could potentially expose details about her life, and told the Daily Pilot she hoped McElroy “had someone on her side to give her that same advice.” She declined to comment on her opponent’s business background.
McElroy described concerns raised by Walsh’s supporters as a “non story.”
“The story should be that my opponent agrees with Gavin Newsom on forcing schools to keep secrets from parents about their children’s health and gender,” McElroy said. “Additionally, my opponent appears to be comfortable with books that are not age appropriate for young children in school.”
In past interviews with the Daily Pilot, Walsh has said she opposes censorship. She has also acknowledged the state law giving educators discretion to share or withhold information about a student’s gender identity, known as AB1955, may protect some from retaliation due to being forcibly outed.
Walsh said she is not interested in stirring conflict with lawmakers in Sacramento. She said her major priorities would be addressing overdue maintenance and other improvements to the district’s infrastructure.
Both she and McElroy have expressed support for measures to improve campus safety, like the installation of AI-assisted surveillance cameras. They have also both voiced interest in expanding early career education for students who might want to pursue alternatives to college after high school.
School boards become battlegrounds
Newport-Mesa Unified has thus far steered clear of conflict related to alleged obscenity in materials distributed to youth or the question of whether educators should be required to divulge information about students’ gender identity to their guardians. But those topics have been the center of debate in other communities across Orange County.
In September 2023, the Orange Unified School District became the sixth in California to adopt a policy requiring campus staff to tell parents if their child began identifying as a gender other than the one listed on their birth certificate, directly in opposition to AB 1955. A similar initiative was considered, but ultimately rejected by the Capistrano Unified School District’s board of trustees about a month later.
Last fall, conservative members of the Huntington Beach City Council approved a “Parent’s Right to Know” ordinance. However, the city does not have jurisdiction over schools in Huntington Beach, which are governed by several different boards. That means the law only applies to instructors working at libraries, parks and other city facilities.
Right-leaning members of the Huntington Beach City Council also championed the implementation of a parental review board to identify and sequester material in libraries they deem either sexually charged or otherwise obscene and inappropriate for children. Opponents note that similar bodies have flagged titles for benign references to puberty and other biological functions, and decry them as an exercises in book banning and censorship.
Cultural issues associated with the perception of vulgar materials in classrooms and opposition to policies either meant to accommodate the needs and concerns of LGBTQ youth or include ethnic studies in curricula have been rallying cries for conservative politicians. As a result, school boards are repeatedly becoming battlegrounds in a broader conflict of ideologies and, according to the nonprofit CalMatters newsroom, California GOP officials have been actively recruiting and training Republican candidates to run for seats on what are officially nonpartisan boards.
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