Blog Archive: La Cañada Unified School District Election

[1:24 a.m.] The La Cañada Unified school board race looks to be headed for a recount, with the second and third place candidates separated by a dozen votes. Full story.

[11:57 p.m.] With 14 of 15 precincts counted, Ellen Multari and Jeanne Broberg remain in first and second place, respectively. Though more than 90% of the votes have been counted, Andrew Blumenfeld has cut Broberg’s lead to 33 votes.

[11:30 p.m.] With slightly more than half of the votes counted, Ellen Multari and Jeanne Broberg are holding on to their leads. Andrew Blumenfeld remains in third place, less than 100 votes behind Broberg. The top two vote-getters win seats on the La Cañada Unified School District board of education.

[10:45 p.m.] Assemblyman Anthony Portantino (D-La Cañada Flintridge) and La Cañada City Councilwoman Laura Olhasso were among the prominent civic leaders at an election night event for school board incumbent Jeanne Broberg. The party was held at a private residence near district headquarters.

Broberg said that if she is reelected, she will focus her attention on the potential mid-year budget cuts expected to be announced by Gov. Jerry Brown’s office in December.

She also said that she particularly enjoyed connecting with some of the district’s Korean families during her campaign.

“I know a lot of people in La Cañada and yet I met many new people,” Broberg said. “I especially have enjoyed getting to know the Korean families. They actually took Ellen and I down to be interviewed by the Korea Times and the Korea Daily.”

[10:30 p.m.] Two dozen Andrew Blumenfeld supporters enjoyed a dinner of Mexican food while awaiting election results at the Blumenfeld residence near the La Cañada Flintridge Country Club.

“He definitely understands the issues that we are facing, and he has a tremendous ability to communicate opportunities for improvement,” outgoing school board member and Blumenfeld campaign chair Cindy Wilcox said.

Blumenfeld, who is 20 and studying education policy at Princeton University, said he was motivated to run for the school board in part by the discrepancies in teacher quality he experienced as a student at La Cañada High School.

Blumenfeld said that running an honest and aggressive campaign that sparked conversation on important issues was a victory itself, regardless of the outcome of the election.

“No regrets,” Blumenfeld said. “I will not be heartbroken. I am very, very proud of the win that we have.”

[8:31 p.m.] With two seats up for grabs, newcomer Ellen Multari and incumbent Jeanne Broberg have jumped to an early lead, with each gathering a bit more than 30% of the vote. Close behind is AJ Blumnefeld gathering 25%. Ernest Koeppen is currently in fourth place, with 15% of the vote.

Slightly more than one-quarter of the precincts have reported.

[8:05 p.m.] A dozen Ernest Koeppen supporters, including several La Cañada High School students, have gathered to watch the returns at Kobeissi Properties on Foothill Boulevard. The Koeppen campaign is serving chopped veggies, dip, sandwiches and soda.

“I think what happens best with these elections, regardless of the outcome, is that we bring up the awareness on many of the issues that we should be reminded of,” Koeppen said. “We all get complacent doing the same thing every day.”

“Whoever wins, I congratulate them,” said Alex Keledjian, 17, Koeppen’s campaign manager. “I know Jeanne ran a hard campaign, so did AJ and Ellen and so did Ernest, so whoever wins, they deserve it.”

Keledjian said a LCUSD board approval of four non-instructional days struck a nerve in town. Some parents were irked that students were encouraged to go to Disneyland as part of a fundraiser during one of the teacher in-service days.

“A lot of people want to get involved with this four [non-student, faculty development day] issue,” he said. “When the four-day decision was made, the election was right around the corner. That is why people are so involved.”

[5:38 p.m.] Poll workers at the La Cañada Flintridge Library said foot traffic has been light today. As of 5:15 p.m., a total of 231 people had cast votes in person at the library. They did note that 30% of voters eligible to cast ballots in the school board race are registered to vote by mail.

“If this were a presidential election I would throw in the towel,” said poll worker Richard Emerson. “As a school board election, it is still pretty light.”

“It is slow,” agreed Esther Siebert, who has worked 40 elections. “[It is] very discouraging, but not surprising. There is not enough interest.”

Voter Lucy McNicoll, mother of seven former and current La Cañada Unified students, said that she votes because “our country needs us, our city needs us.”

Speaking specifically about the school board candidates, she said “I think that new flesh is going to be very good.”

[5:00 p.m.] Welcome, readers. Tonight we are tracking several local elections in Pasadena, South Pasadena, San Marino and La Cañada Flintridge. Follow this blog throughout the evening for live updates, photographs, tweets and voter reactions on the La Cañada Unified School District’s Board of Education race.

Our team of reporters and editors tonight includes Dan Evans, Bill Kisliuk, Megan O’Neil, Adolfo Flores and Tiffany Kelly.

Follow us on Twitter for more updates and election tidbits: @PasadenaSun and @ValleySun.