The Nov. 4 Election Day brought a wave of new and familiar faces to school boards across San Benito County. Of the 17 school races in the county, eight garnered enough qualified candidates to appear on the ballot for a deciding vote.
The latest round of unofficial results posted at 12:27 a.m. showed all precincts reporting with these preliminary results for the Hollister School District, San Benito High School District and Gavilan College Joint Community College District contests:
In the Gavilan College Joint Community College District board of trustees race for two San Benito County area representatives, incumbent Kent Child had the lead with 35.25 percent of the votes, followed by challenger Lois Locci with 34.82 percent. Challenger Elizabeth Dirks had 29.38 percent of the votes. In the same district’s race for one Morgan Hill area trustee, incumbent Laura Perry had the lead with 61.8 percent of the votes. Challenger Mark Hinkle had 37.84 percent of the votes.
The San Benito High School District had three openings on their board of trustees and six qualified candidates. With all precincts reporting for this race by the 11:34 p.m. round of unofficial results, incumbent Bill Tiffany had the lead with 24.23 percent of the votes, followed by challenger Juan Robledo with 24.04 percent and incumbent Steve DeLay with 17.66 percent. Incumbent Mary Encinias had 14.59 percent of the votes, challenger Jennifer Coile had 13.17 percent and challenger Roger Curtis had 6.04 percent.
The Hollister School District has three openings on their school board and seven qualified candidates. Incumbent Patricia (Pat) Moore had the lead with 21.45 percent of the votes, followed by challenger Peter Hernandez with 16.59 percent of the votes and incumbent Elsa Rodriguez with 15.82 percent of the votes. Incumbent Lupe Navarro had 14.98 percent of the votes, challenger Brianna Rodriguez Tavares had 11.89 percent, challenger J.W. Paine had 10.47 percent and challenger Erika Amezcua had 8.5 percent.
Other races in the county included two trustee positions for the North County Joint Union School District, three positions in the Southside School District and a partial and two full term positions in the Panoche School District. To see the results of these races, go to sbcvote.us.
