Sunita Beall, Bill Banning and Celeste Kafri were well ahead Tuesday night in their quest for seats on the Santa Barbara Unified School District board.

In the District 2 contest, Beall had 63.5% of the vote to 35.9% for John Robertson.

For District 3, Banning had 54.0% of the vote compared with 30.9% for Phyliss Cohen and 14.7% for Chris Wichowski.

Kafri received 60.4% of the vote in the District 5 race to 38.3% for Jason Lekas.

Beall has served for nine months on the school board, much of which has been centered on dealing with the teacher backlash.

She said that, if elected, her strongest focus would be on ensuring success in adopting the new English Language Arts curriculum. She also said she would increase support for the arts and music programs in junior high school.

Banning said one of his main goals would be to retain and recruit excellent educators, which he believes is tied to strong student success.

One of his top priorities, he said, would be to ensure that schools remain safe, supportive environments where students are deeply engaged in their education and have the resources they need to succeed.

Kafri said she would work toward a day when every student in Santa Barbara Unified is challenged, supported and thrives.

Kafri said she would focus on reading and improving literacy skills.

With a master’s degree in business administration and a certificate in education finance, she said she would push the district to be more fiscally conservative.