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Local election delivers two school board members Measure P falls hard BY PETER DUGRÉ
The most talked about Santa The oil Barbara County Ballot Initiative, industry Measure P, fell flat on election night, despite a spirited local spent over campaign to ban hydraulic fracturing, among other oil $7 million on extraction techniques, on Santa the No on P Barbara County lands. Voters campaign, rejected the ban that the Carpinteria City Council had endorsed which sent by a margin of 63 to 37 percent. The oil industry spent over the message $7 million on the No on P camthat the paign, which sent the message industry is that the industry is an already regulated and necessary part an already of the county economy. Voters regulated and agreed. The Yes on P campaign, orchestrated by a group called necessary The Santa Barbara County Wapart of the ter Guardians, argued that county the dangers of oil extraction techniques like fracking, matrix economy. acidization and cyclic-steam injection put precious aquifers in great peril. The Carpinteria Unified School District Board of Education saw Andy Sheaffer reelected, and the board that oversees local public schools will add Michelle Robertson, the former director at the Carpinteria Children’s Project at Main, in place of outgoing board member Grace Donnelly. John Stineman was the odd man out of three-candidate race. The school board will interview two candidates to replace Sally Hinton as a representative for the Summerland trustee area on Nov. 6. Sheaffer and Robertson will represent the Carpinteria trustee area. Carpinteria City Council had three seats that would have been up for election this year, but only the incumbents entered the race, resulting in a non-election for renewing the four-year terms of Brad Stein, Gregg Carty and Al Clark. Measure S, the Santa Barbara City College bond measure, which would have raised local property taxes, fell by a margin of 51 percent to 49 percent. It needed approval by 55 percent of voters for the $288 million bond request for upgrades at SBCC. Das Williams will continue to represent the 37th District in the State Assembly, and Lois Capps will continue her run as the U.S. Congresswoman from the 24th District.
See ELECTION RESULTS continued on page 7
BOYD
Hardworking Measure U campaigners celebrate early election results leaning in support of the initiative. From left are Leslie Murphy, Kiki Scheiblauer, Marybeth Carty, Beth Cox, Alison Livett, Ian Livett, Cindy Abbott, Terry Hickey Banks and John Franklin.
Community unites behind Measure U
Carpinteria schools can look forward to $90 million in improvements over the next several years thanks to the 65 percent of voters who headed to the polls on Nov. 4 in support of Measure U. Handily surpassing the 55 percent approval threshold, the bond measure will raise local property taxes in order to upgrade and modernize Carpinteria Unified School District’s seven campuses. “It’s clear to me that the Carpinteria citizenry understands the importance of excellent schools,” said CUSD Superintendent Paul Cordeiro on the morning after the election. “We asked Carpinteria to invest in its youth and so it did, overwhelmingly.” Funds from bond sales will be used to replace 63 aged portable classrooms with permanent ones, construct a new science wing at Carpinteria High School and improve infrastructure to support 21st century technology, among many other upgrades to campuses. A school board-approved Master Facilities Plan, developed over several months with input from school site representatives and community members, will dictate the projects undertaken with bond monies. By law, a citizens oversight committee must be formed to ensure that the monies are spent accordingly. Beth Cox, who served on the campaign committee, said that the news of the bond measure’s passage
“We asked Carpinteria to invest in its youth and so it did, overwhelmingly.”
–– CUSD Superintendent Paul Cordeiro
came with “exhilaration and relief.” The committee, which was made up of district administrators, board members and community members, spent the last 10 weeks placing thousands of phone calls to voters from its headquarters in the former Austin’s Hardware. Passage of the bond will lead to property tax increases at a rate of $47 per $100,000 of assessed property value. Cox said she understood that the hike was difficult for some voters to stomach, but that in the end most people made a decision that will improve education for many future generations of Carpinterians. She hopes the monies will help to keep students enrolled in CUSD, where they can enjoy modern, state of the art learning facilities. ––Lea Boyd