El Rancho Unified School District elections (2015)

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2013
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2015 El Rancho Unified School District Elections

General Election date:
November 3, 2015
Table of Contents
About the district
Method of election
Elections
What was at stake?
Key deadlines
Additional elections
External links
See also
California
El Rancho Unified School District
Los Angeles County, California ballot measures
Local ballot measures, California
Flag of California.png

Two seats on the El Rancho Unified School District Board of Education were up for general election on November 3, 2015.[1][2] The seats held by incumbents Delia Alvidrez and Alfred Renteria were on the ballot.[3]

Challengers Teresa Lugo Merino and Gabriel Orosco won election to the board. They defeated Renteria along with fellow challengers Arlene Perez, Raul Elias and Victor "Coach" Gonzalez. Alvidrez did not file to run for re-election, ensuring that at least one newcomer would join the board.[4][5]

See how this race compared to past school board elections in both the district and the state in the "Election trends" section.

About the district

See also: El Rancho Unified School District, California
El Rancho Unified School District is located in Los Angeles County, Calif.

El Rancho Unified School District is located in Los Angeles County in southwestern California. The county seat is Los Angeles.[6] Los Angeles County was home to 10,116,705 residents in 2014, according to the United States Census Bureau.[7] During the 2012-2013 school year, the El Rancho Unified School District was the 175th-largest school district by enrollment in California and served 9,953 students.[8]

Demographics

Los Angeles County underperformed compared to the rest of California in terms of higher education achievement in 2013. The United States Census Bureau found that 29.7 percent of county residents aged 25 years and older had attained a bachelor's degree, compared to 30.7 percent for California as a whole. The median household income for Los Angeles County was $55,909, compared to $61,094 for the entire state. The percentage of people below poverty level was 17.8 percent, compared to 15.9 percent statewide.[7]

Racial Demographics, 2014[7]
Race Los Angeles County (%) California (%)
White 71.3 73.2
Black or African American 9.2 6.5
American Indian and Alaska Native 1.5 1.7
Asian 14.8 14.4
Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander 0.4 0.5
Two or more races 2.9 3.7
Hispanic or Latino 48.4 38.6

Presidential Voting Pattern,
Los Angeles County[9]
Year Democratic Vote Republican Vote
2012 2,216,903 885,333
2008 2,295,853 956,425
2004 1,907,736 1,076,225
2000 1,710,505 871,930

Note: Percentages for race and ethnicity may add up to more than 100 percent because respondents may report more than one race and the Hispanic/Latino ethnicity may be selected in conjunction with any race. Read more about race and ethnicity in the census here.

Voter and candidate information

The El Rancho Unified Board of Education consists of five members elected at large to four-year terms. Board members are elected on a staggered basis every November of odd-numbered years. There are no primary elections. Three seats were up for election on November 5, 2013, and two seats were on the ballot on November 3, 2015.[1][3]

School board candidates had to be at least 18 years old, residents of the school district and qualified voters. They could not be employees of the school district while in office.[10] To get on the ballot, candidates had to file their declaration of candidacy with the Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk by August 7, 2015.[11]

To vote in this election, residents of the district had to register by October 19, 2015. Voters could cast vote-by-mail ballots from October 24, 2015, through Election Day.[11] Photo identification was not required to vote in California.

Elections

2015

Candidates

At-large
Alfred Renteria Raul Elias Victor "Coach" Gonzalez

Alfred Renteria.jpg

  • Incumbent

Raul Elias.jpg

  • Graduate, California State University at Fullerton
  • Teacher

Placeholder image.png

  • Account manager
Teresa Lugo Merino Green check mark transparent.png Gabriel Orosco Green check mark transparent.png Arlene Perez

Teresa Lugo Merino.jpeg

  • Graduate, California State University at Los Angeles and Claremont Graduate University
  • Teacher and administrator

Gabriel Orosco.png

  • Graduate, University of Southern California
  • Educator and administrator

Placeholder image.png

  • Graduate, University of California at Santa Barbara
  • Teacher

Election results

El Rancho Unified School District, At-large, General Election, 2015
Candidate Vote % Votes
Green check mark transparent.png Teresa Lugo Merino 26.9% 1,706
Green check mark transparent.png Gabriel Orosco 20.9% 1,328
Alfred Renteria Incumbent 19.8% 1,254
Arlene Perez 13.1% 834
Raul Elias 12.9% 818
Victor "Coach" Gonzalez 6.4% 407
Total Votes 6,347
Source: Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk, "NOVEMBER 03, 2015 - LOCAL AND MUNICIPAL CONSOLIDATED ELECTIONS: Final Official Election Returns," accessed November 24, 2015

Endorsements

Challengers Raul Elias and Gabriel Orosco were endorsed by the Los Angeles County Democratic Party.[12] Orosco was further endorsed by the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor, AFL-CIO and the community organization Evolve.[13][14]

Challenger Teresa Lugo Merino received endorsements from the following organizations and elected officials:[15]

Campaign finance

Campaign Finance Ballotpedia.png
See also: List of school board campaign finance deadlines in 2015

At the time of this election, the Los Angeles Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk did not publish school board candidate campaign finance reports online. Ballotpedia staffers requested this information, but the only free method of viewing the files was at their office.

The Los Angeles Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk targeted the end of 2018 to make school board candidate campaign finance reports available online for free. From that point forward, Ballotpedia began including campaign finance data for Los Angeles County school board candidates.[16][17][18]

Campaign finance reporting requirements in California vary depending on how much money candidates spend or raise. For candidates planning to raise or spend less than $1,000, an Officeholder and Candidate Campaign Statement Short Form (Form 470) must be filed with their county or city elections office. If candidates plan to spend up to $1,000, including their own funds, they must also file a Candidate Intention Statement (Form 501). "If a candidate does not raise any money and personal funds are used only to pay filing or ballot statement fees, the candidate is not required to file the Form 501," according to the Fair Political Practices Commission. If candidates raise money outside of their own funds, a separate campaign bank account must be established.[19]

Candidates raising or spending more than $1,000, including their personal funds, must file a Candidate Intention Statement (Form 501), file a Statement of Organization (Form 410) and establish a separate bank account for campaign funds. They must then file Recipient Committee Campaign Statements (Form 460) to disclose their contributions and expenditures throughout their campaigns. If they receive more than $1,000 from a single source within 90 days of the election, they must file a 24-hour Contribution Report (Form 497).[19]

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If you have any information regarding the campaign finance disclosures in this race, please contact the school board elections team at elections@ballotpedia.org.

Past elections

What was at stake?

2015

Election trends

School Board Election Trends Banner.jpg
See also: 2013 school board elections

With two seats on the ballot on November 3, 2015, nearly half of the El Rancho Unified Board of Education had the potential to change hands. One of the two incumbents ran to retain his seat, guaranteeing at least one newcomer would join the board. Two newcomers ended up joining the board, defeating the incumbents and three challengers. With a total of five challengers in this race, there was an average of three candidates per seat.

In 2013, two newcomers joined the board. Two incumbents ran against four challengers for three seats, creating an average of two candidates per seat. One incumbent was ousted from his spot, and the other was re-elected.

Both the 2013 and the 2015 school board races in the El Rancho Unified School District had a higher number of candidates run per seat than the 2014 state average of 1.91 candidates per seat up for election in California's largest school districts. That year, just over 25 percent of board seats in those districts were unopposed, and 37.65 percent of seats went to newcomers.

Key deadlines

The following dates were key deadlines for the El Rancho Unified School District election in 2015:[11][20]

Deadline Event
June 8, 2015 - August 7, 2015 Candidate filing period
July 31, 2015 Semi-annual campaign finance report due
August 5, 2015 - November 2, 2015 24-hour campaign contribution reporting period
September 7, 2015 - October 20, 2015 Write-in candidate filing period
September 24, 2015 Pre-election campaign finance report due
October 19, 2015 Voter registration deadline
October 22, 2015 Pre-election campaign finance report due
October 24, 2015 First day voters can cast vote-by-mail ballots
November 3, 2015 Election Day
February 1, 2016 Semi-annual campaign finance report due

Additional elections on the ballot

See also: California elections, 2015

No elections shared the ballot with the El Rancho Unified School District. A number of other school districts in Los Angeles County, however, also held school board elections on November 3, 2015.[21]

Recent news

The link below is to the most recent stories in a Google news search for the terms El Rancho Unified School District California. These results are automatically generated from Google. Ballotpedia does not curate or endorse these articles.

See also

El Rancho Unified School District California School Boards
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Seal of California.png
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External links

Footnotes

  1. 1.0 1.1 Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk, “2015 Scheduled Elections,” accessed January 27, 2015
  2. Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk, “Running for Office,” accessed January 27, 2015
  3. 3.0 3.1 El Rancho Unified School District, "Board of Education," accessed January 27, 2015
  4. Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk, "Candidate List: Local And Municipal Consolidated Elections - 11/3/2015," accessed August 11, 2015
  5. Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk, "NOVEMBER 03, 2015 - LOCAL AND MUNICIPAL CONSOLIDATED ELECTIONS: Semi-Final Official Election Returns," accessed November 4, 2015
  6. Geology.com, "California County Map with County Seat Cities," accessed July 1, 2014
  7. 7.0 7.1 7.2 United States Census Bureau, "Los Angeles County, California," accessed September 22, 2015
  8. National Center for Education Statistics, "ELSI Table Generator," accessed April 29, 2015
  9. Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk, "Past Election Results," accessed July 1, 2014
  10. El Rancho Unified School District, "Board Policies & Administrative Regulations," accessed August 7, 2015
  11. 11.0 11.1 11.2 Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk, "Calendar of Events," accessed July 29, 2015
  12. Los Angeles County Democratic Party, "Endorsements," accessed October 27, 2015
  13. Los Angeles County Federation of Labor, AFL-CIO, "Endorsements," accessed October 27, 2015
  14. Evolve, "2015 Endorsements: November 03, 2015 Election," accessed October 27, 2015
  15. Dr. Merino for School Board 2015, "Endorsements," accessed October 28, 2015
  16. Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk, "Campaign Finance Reports," accessed July 2, 2014
  17. Daniel Anderson, “Email communication with Brenda Duran, Los Angeles County Public Information Officer," October 7, 2016
  18. Abbey Smith, “Email communication with Brenda Duran, Los Angeles County Public Information Officer," January 2, 2018
  19. 19.0 19.1 Fair Political Practices Commission, "Local Candidates, Superior Court Judges, Their Controlled Committees, and Primarily Formed Committees for Local Candidates: Campaign Disclosure Manual 2," accessed August 5, 2015
  20. Fair Political Practices Commission, "Filing Schedule for Candidates and Controlled Committees for Local Office Being Voted on November 3, 2015," accessed August 5, 2015
  21. Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk, "Local And Municipal Consolidated Elections - 11/3/2015," accessed July 29, 2015