LAKE COUNTY — It”s official. Challenger Chris Irwin emerged victorious over incumbent Andy Dobusch by a mere eight votes in the Kelseyville Unified School District Board race. The results of the November 6 General District Election were certified Nov. 19, according to a statement from the Lake County Registrar of Voters Office Friday.
“The most important thing I want to do is get parents and the community back involved in the school,” Irwin said. “The difference between a good school and a great school is community involvement. When there”s a basketball game, there should be 300 people there, not 30.”
The top three vote-getters were challenger John R. DeChaine with 1,028 votes, incumbent Gary Olson with 795 and Irwin with 745. The winners will be sworn in Dec. 14.
“What I would like to see happen is the community come together and improve our educational test scores and our enrollment, because if we have declining enrollment we have declining dollars,” John R. DeChaine said. “That necessarily means tough choices ahead.”
Olson did not answer a question sent via e-mail by the Record-Bee as of press time Friday.
Three seats on the Lakeport Unified School District Board will now be filled by incumbent Bob Weiss, who took 932 votes, Robyn K. Stevenson with 917 votes, and Philip T. Kirby with 848 votes. They will be sworn in Dec. 13.
“I”m excited and certainly very pleased that people trust me to be involved in keeping their schools on track. I look forward to working with a really great board and a tremendous staff,” Weiss said. This will be his second full term.
Stevenson and Kirby could not be contacted as of press time Friday.
Challenger Annie Barnes and incumbent Colleen Alexander will fill two seats on the Upper Lake Union High School Board. Barnes had a total of 561 votes, 29 percent of the votes cast. Alexander followed with 490 votes, 25.3 percent of the votes.
Incumbent David Browning took 78.6 percent of the vote in the race for a seat on the Lake County Board of Education. Incumbent Joan M. Erikson will fill a seat on the Mendocino-Lake College Board for trustee area 3 with 55 percent of the vote. In trustee area 7 on the college board, challenger Jerry DeChaine won with 53.7 percent of the vote. Challenger Kay Hancock won with 64.5 percent of the vote for a spot on the Lucerne Elementary School District Board.
Challenger Beatrice A. Moulton and Penelope D. Falduto will fill two seats on the Anderson Springs Community Services District Board, with 46.5 and 42.2 percent of the votes cast, respectively.
Challengers Helen G. Locke, Mike Anisman and Frank Toney will fill three seats on the Clearlake Oaks County Water District, winning over incumbents Bob White, June A. Greene and Glenn R. Rowe.
Contact Tiffany Revelle at trevelle@record-bee.com.
