Like the United States, the Newport Mesa Unified School District Board of Education is hosting an election this autumn for three of their seven members. Carol Crane, Krista Weigand, and Leah Ersoylu were all elected in 2020, and their positions are up for election again this year. Crane is the sitting president, Weigand the vice president, and Ersoylu the clerk of the board. All three are running again, and all of them are against at least one opponent.
Carol Crane is the most directly relevant to CdM, as she is both the president and trustee of our school’s administrative area, as well as Back Bay High School and Eastbluff Elementary. The Board is split into seven trustee areas, and each member is responsible for the area they live inside of, meaning Crane is the neighbor of many CdM students and affiliates. As a supporter of the arts, she’s been known to attend CdM’s drama productions and choir shows; a lot of students have likely met her without realizing. In this election, she’s running against Philip Stemler, who went to Corona del Mar himself and has two students currently enrolled in NMUSD schools.
The Vice President of the District Board, Krista Weigand, is the trustee of Kaiser, Newport Heights, Woodlands, and Mariners Elementary, as well as Harper Preschool. She has two children currently in NMUSD schools, and she’s running against Chris Kretzu, who has the same connection to the community through his children. To round it out, they’re both facing off against Amy Peters, who ran in 2020 and was narrowly defeated by Weigand herself. Back for a second election, Peters is also familiar with the area, as she attended Newport Harbor.
Finally, Leah Ersoylu is running against Robin Mensinger for clerk, as well as jurisdiction over Early College and Estancia High Schools, TeWinkle Intermediate, and Adams, California, and Killybrooke Elementaries. Ersoylu has previously taught at UCI and Chapman and was a parent of a child who attended NMUSD schools.
Mr. Pembrook, one of CdM’s assistant principals, says that the policies and decisions of school board members affect what’s going on in the classroom every day, and because of this, the board members should be genuinely interested in students’s perspectives. “If you really want to know what’s happening, you have to ask the kids,” he shares, saying that his perspective on administration changed when his kids came to the Newport Mesa school district and he heard their firsthand experience about what the schools were like. The president of CdM’s ASB, Ganon Overfelt, attends the meetings for the school board and says he will keep Trident Magazine posted on the election news.
