College board, other school races draw candidates; tiny portion of Yorba Linda in Orange and Rancho Santiago districts

 

One common path to hold a trustee position in the North Orange County Community College District has been by appointment, either through an initial appointment by the other trustees or an appointment in-lieu of election because no challengers filed to run against incumbents.

To date, the seven sitting trustees have served a total of 21 full or partial terms – nine by appointment and 12 by election. This year, two of three trustees scheduled for the Nov. 8 election ballot have serious opposition.

Barbara Dunsheath, a 17-year incumbent and professor at East Los Angeles College, will face Blaze Bhence, a business technology consultant, to represent Area 1, the southwest portion of the district that includes Los Alamitos and parts of other nearby cities.

Jeff Brown, a 20-year incumbent and senior engineer at the Orange County Sanitation District, will face retired educator Jessica Rutan to represent Area 6, the center portion of the district that includes Fullerton, Placentia and parts of Brea, Yorba Linda and Anaheim.

No challenger filed to run against Stephen Blount, a retired corporate controller and six-year trustee, so he'll continue representing Area 3, including Buena Park, La Palma and Cypress.

Candidate statements for contenders in contested races will be mailed to voters with election details starting Sept. 29. The candidates paid for printing and translation into four languages.

Other north county school trustees who will be appointed to new terms because nobody filed to run against them include Chester Jeng and Marilyn Buchi in the Fullerton Joint Union High School District and Annemarie Randle-Trejo in the Anaheim Union High School District.

Among elementary school district trustees to be appointed because they drew no opposition are Rhodia Shead, Jason Cheng and Jerry Frutos in Buena Park; Art Montez and Luis Flores in Centralia; Lydia Sondhi in Cypress; and Aaruni Thaker and Beverly Berryman in Fullerton.

Others include Anastasia Shackelford in Lowell Joint, Connie Martin and Gary Shields in Magnolia and Gary Zambrano and John Shook in Savanna.

Trustees will be appointed in the Buena Park Library District (Brenda Estrada and Richard Rams) and the Placentia Library District (Stephanie Beverage, Jo-Anne Martin and Scott Nelson). Al Nederhood will be appointed to his slot in the county Municipal Water District.

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A tiny portion of Yorba Linda lies within the boundaries of the Rancho Santiago Community College District and the Orange Unified School District. The land is in Yorba Linda's portion of Savi Ranch and includes apartments with about 60 registered voters.

The area is represented by Phillip Yarborough in Area 6 of the Rancho Santiago district and Andrea Yamasaki in Area 1 of the Orange Unified district. Yarborough will be appointed to a new term because he didn't draw an opponent, and Yamasaki faces Angela Williams Nov. 8.