IUSD school board to welcome two new members following Tuesday's election

A handful of state and local races with major implications for IUSD were decided Tuesday night.

We’ll start with the IUSD Board of Education, where incumbent school board President Michael Parham secured his third term with 15.9 percent of the vote. He’ll be joined by newcomers Lauren Brooks and Paul Bokota, who topped a field of eight challengers by earning 15 percent and 13.8 percent, respectively. Brooks and Bokota are well known for their volunteer efforts and will essentially take over for longtime trustees Sue Kuwabara and Carolyn McInerney, who decided not to run this year after having each served three distinguished terms. The 2013 version of the board will also include current members Gavin Huntley-Fenner and Sharon Wallin. Statewide, Proposition 30 passed with about 54 percent with all precincts reporting. This initiative will generate revenue for schools and other state programs by temporarily raising taxes for high-income earners and increasing the sales tax by 0.25 percent through 2016. (Another school funding measure, Proposition 38, was defeated.) You may recall that the latest state budget was built on the assumption that Proposition 30 would pass, and that was far from a sure thing. Had the initiative failed, schools and districts were facing unprecedented trigger cuts on top of previous reductions. We'll have more specifics about IUSD's budget plans in future posts. Last but certainly not least was Irvine’s own Measure BB, also known as the Support Our Schools initiative. The measure, which passed with 68.7 percent of the vote, will significantly increase the amount of funding IUSD receives from the City of Irvine though the Educational Partnership Fund and the Challenge Match Program. The latter effort represents a dollar-for-dollar match with the Irvine Public Schools Foundation, which recently launched its latest campaign to support local schools. Again, stay tuned for details.