Darleene Barrientos
Education board incumbents all easily reclaimed their seats Tuesday,
with one challenger, Joylene Wagner, joining their ranks.
Wagner might have been the last candidate to file papers, but the
active PTA volunteer and substitute teacher emerged to claim the
third spot on the Glendale Unified School District board of
education.
Wagner won 14.3%, or 9,100 votes, trailing incumbent Chuck Sambar
-- who pulled in 14.5% -- by 94 votes.
"There was a network of people out there who knew me and could
speak of me from their experience," said Wagner, who spent two
decades with Glendale PTA. "I'm glad for that. Sometimes, friends are
better than money."
Wagner's campaign was more modestly funded than challengers, Cal
State Los Angeles professor Nayiri Nahabedian and New Horizons Family
Center founder and executive director Maria Rochart.
Wagner raised about $8,000 to Rochart's $58,681. Rochart was the
sixth-highest vote getter, after former board member Louise Foote,
who did not fundraise at all. Incumbent Greg Krikorian received the
most votes with 12,619 or 19.9%.
"I'm extremely overjoyed," Krikorian said. "It just shows the
confidence the community has in me and what we've accomplished as a
board these last four years. I'm truly humbled by the support of the
community."
Glendale Community College incumbents maintained a strong hold on
their seats with board President Victor King pulling in 30.1% of the
vote or 15,174 votes -- the highest number of votes received by any
of the 43 candidates up for election Tuesday.
"I had a lot of good indicators I would get a lot of votes," King
said. "A lot of people know me because I went to kindergarten with a
lot of the voters ... I think that longevity translated into my
getting a lot of votes. It certainly was not the money I put in."
Board member Armine Hacopian won 14,363 votes, or 28.5%, while
Vice President Anita Gabrielian won 13,384, or 26.6% of the votes
cast.
The biggest upset of the Glendale Community College race was the
loss of trustee Ara Najarian, who was elected to the City Council.
"We're expecting big things from Ara," King said. "As a former
parking commissioner and college trustee, if we're expecting more
parking, that burden must fall on Ara's shoulders. If anyone can
rally the constituencies to get the college more parking, it's got to
be him."
The college board will likely issue application invitations to the
community and appoint a replacement to fill Najarian's space for the
next two years, King said. Challenger Linda Sheffield will not
automatically be chosen because she ran for the board, he said.
"She's most certainly invited to apply for appointment, but we're
probably going to handle [it] in the exact manner when we replaced
Mary Hamilton in 2002," King said. "It worked really well, so there's
no reason why we wouldn't go through the same thing."
* DARLEENE BARRIENTOS covers education. She may be reached at
(818) 637-3215.
