Santa Barbara school board incumbent Rose Munoz and newcomer Gabe Escobedo had strong leads for their bids for seats on the Santa Barbara Unified School District Board of Trustees, according to election night results.
Munoz was heading to an easy re-election victory with 81.4% of the vote in semi-official election night results over challenger Phebe Mansur.
”I pledge to continue the fight for equity and achievement for all students,” Munoz said to a crowd of more than 100 people at the Timbers Restaurant in Goleta.
She said she wants to include the staff and the teachers in the conversation.
“They are the ones who are seeing what the kids are doing and what works best to improve their achievement,” Munoz said. “As we continue this fight, we can united our voices and collaborate.”
Munoz said she wants to make school campuses free of bullying and racism.
“The students need to have the freedom to pursue and concentrate on their studies, so they can do well and pursue their dreams,” Munoz said.
Munoz, who is seeking a second term, is a social worker and serves as the current president of the school board.
Munoz was born and raised in Santa Barbara. She said she faced many challenges when she was growing up, and can relate to the struggles faced by the students in the community.
Mansur owns CopyRight Printing and said she would bring unique solutions to the school board.
Mansur said she wanted to improve literacy rates, and was a vocal critic of the district’s sex education curriculum, Teen Talk.
Escobedo Ahead in Race for Open School Board Seat
Escobedo had 56.0% of the vote, compared to 25.7% for Efigenia Banales and 17.8% for Dan La Berge. He was ahead by more than 1,000 votes, according to the County Elections Office.
Escobedo was thrilled with the results.
“Of course the ballots are still being counted, but we feel great,” Escobedo said. “This has been a campaign that focused on the issues and I’m proud that we connected with the folks throughout Santa Barbara. I look forward to getting to work and making our schools better for every student.”
Escobedo, Banales, and La Berge were vying for an open seat representing District 1, to manage a school district that is experiencing massive turnover in administration and senior leadership, while the superintendent has faced significant criticism from teachers and others in the past year.
Escobedo serves as chair of the Santa Barbara Planning Commission and recently finished a term as the chair of the Community Formation Commission, which sought to bring a civilian review board to Santa Barbara.
Escobedo was raised by a single mother and grew up poor in Los Angeles. He works as a Student Affairs director at UC Santa Barbara, and said he supports the science of reading to help improve students’ learning.
Escobedo has said he will bring a cultural understanding to the position and can relate to Latinx students, who make up about 60% of the district population.
Banales is a political conservative and vocal critic of Teen Talk and the district’s sexual education program. She also sought to advocate for Latino children, who she says are neglected by the district.
She is an immigrant from Mexico and worked at the district for nearly 30 years.
Banales retired from the district a year ago, after working jobs as an elementary school office coordinator, a bilingual/special education paraeducator and a parent facilitator. As a parent and grandparent, she participated in dozens of school and parent community meetings over the years.
La Berge is a parent of children at Adelante Charter School, a dual-language Spanish immersion school.
He’s the co-founder of Mother’s Helpers, a nonprofit organization that provides cribs, strollers, blankets and bouncers to mothers in need.
La Berge said his experience of raising three children has helped him understand that there isn’t just one approach toward educating students. All three of his children learn in different ways, he said.
After polls closed at 8 p.m. on Tuesday, the County Elections Office released results for all the ballots that had already been received and counted.
A semi-official tally was posted late Tuesday night.
Results will be updated again on Nov. 15, which is the deadline for vote-by-mail ballots to be delivered to the County Elections Office as long as the ballots are postmarked on or before Election Day.
The Santa Barbara County Elections Office will certify the Nov. 8 election results by Dec. 8.
— Noozhawk staff writer Joshua Molina can be reached at jmolina@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.
