By Jeannette Andruss on Oct 30, 2026

🗳️ Spotlight Schools Newsletter: Election Preview+

🗳️ Election 2026 // 📈 Top Test Scores // 💰 $525,000 Grants

THE LATEST ON TK-12 EDUCATION IN ORANGE COUNTY

It’s been a while! We’re back in your inbox and hope to be here more often this school year. If you're new, welcome to the Spotlight Schools email newsletter bringing you original reporting, curated news and information so you can better understand, navigate, and participate in the TK-12 education experience in Orange County.

In this newsletter:

🗳️ Election 2026: Who wants to rule your schools? We built a new tool to help you get informed about the school board candidates on the Nov. 3, 2026 General Election ballot.
🔦 Flash Feed: Newly released test scores show how students are performing in Orange County. Declining enrollment is forcing at least one local elementary school to close at the end of this academic year.
Stories We're Reading: 💰 Grant up for Grabs: The Orange County Department of Education is giving out $525,000 grants for innovative projects.
🖥️ Looking Ahead: In our next newsletter we'll report on how discussions about screen time are playing out in local districts. Plus, why several school districts are joining lawsuits against social media companies.

Don’t forget to visit our website, SpotlightSchools.com or to follow us on Instagram, where we are most active. And if you want to support our mission to help families better navigate the education system, donate to our newsroom. We appreciate it!

Yours in knowledge,

Jeannette Andruss Co-founder, Spotlight Schools

🗳️ Voting Underway for Nov. 3, 2026 Election

Ballots for the Nov. 3 General Election are being deposited into drop boxes and being filled out at Vote Centers across Orange County.

But have you done your election homework yet?

We’re here to help! Spotlight Schools created a new tool that gives you the information you need to make an educated decision about the people hoping to lead the schools in your neighborhood. The searchable election guide allows you to find which candidates are running in your district and visit links to their official ballot statements, websites, social media accounts and forums, where available.

🗳️ Visit www.spotlightschools.com/election2026

🗳️ In Brief: Election Politics

Thirty-seven contests for school board seats across Orange County are on the ballot on Tuesday and some school boards could see a shift in power. Or at least that's what some candidates are hoping.

In the Laguna Beach Unified School District, two camps have formed among the candidates.

Three of the five seats on the Board of Education are on the ballot. Every eligible voter in the district gets to select up to three candidates. Five people are running and two of them are incumbents, Joan Malczewski, Ph.D., and Dee Perry.

Incumbent Perry, a former teacher, is campaigning with candidate Elizabeth Bates, a district parent and Laguna Beach High School alumna. They are asking voters to only vote for them and leave the third spot open on the ballot.

Images from the Instagram accounts of the candidates for the Laguna Beach Unified School District Board of Education.

Incumbent Dr. Malczewski and candidates Kimberly Smith, a district parent and CEO, and Shaheen Sheik-Sadhal, a district parent, lawyer, and co-founder of a nonprofit parent advocacy group, are asking voters to support their slate of three candidates. Backers are campaigning to “flip the board.” The slate was endorsed by the Laguna Beach Unified teachers union.

Current Board President Sheri Morgan posted last month on Instagram: “We already flipped the board.” Morgan was first elected in 2024.

Laguna Beach Unified voters will also decide on Measure A, an $83 million bond measure that needs support from 55% of voters to pass.

Four of the seven seats on the Orange Unified School District Board of Education are up for a vote this November and the outcome could shift the power dynamic of the board. Four incumbents are seeking to retain their seats and at least one candidate is challenging each of them.

OUSD incumbents on the left are facing a slate from challengers, pictured on the right. Images from the candidates' campaign Instagram accounts.

The candidates have organized into slates with the incumbents teaming up and endorsing one another. Andrea Yamasaki, Kris Erickson, Sara Pelly, and Stephen Glass, Ed.D., are all seeking to keep their seats. They are being supported by OUSD Proud, the same group that successfully recalled two OUSD board trustees in 2024. Four of the five challengers are also aligning publicly in their campaigns. Ivan Kokos, Chip Ahlswede, Jack Chang and Crystal Miles are being promoted by a group called Orange United, which is also backed by one of the trustees that was recalled in 2024.

In the Anaheim Elementary School District two former trustees are challenging incumbents to get their seats back. In Trustee Area 2, there is a rematch from the 2018 race when Juan Gabriel Álvarez beat the then-incumbent Jeff Cole, Ed.D., by 300 votes. Dr. Cole is seeking to retake the seat he held from 2010-2018. In Trustee Area 4, Mark Lopez is running against Alva Álvarez to regain the seat he was ousted from in 2025. That’s when the board voted 3-2 to declare his seat vacant, arguing it was unlawful for Lopez to serve on two local governing boards after he won election to the North Orange County Community College District Board of Trustees. Lopez still serves on the NOCCCD board.

Shift to Voting by Trustee Area

This election cycle, the Ocean View School District and La Habra City School District are both changing how they elect school board members by shifting to trustee area voting. That means voters will elect one trustee from their geographic area. This replaces the at-large voting system where all voters elected all five board members.

Canceled School Board Elections

Although some school board seats were scheduled for a vote this year, they don't appear on the Nov. 3 ballot. That's because only one person in each contest filed qualifying paperwork to run. As a result, the elections were canceled, and the lone candidate automatically won the seat without a vote.

This is what happened in the Los Alamitos Unified School District. Two seats were due for a vote this election cycle but will not appear on the ballot. In Trustee Area 1, Marlys Davidson did not seek reelection. Anne Mulhearn, a district parent and volunteer, was the only candidate to run for the seat. Mulhearn is due to take her oath of office in December. In Trustee Area 3, current Board President Diana Hill had no opposition so she will continue to serve on the board. She was first elected to the role in 2010.

Elections were also canceled due to only one candidate qualifying for races in the Buena Park School District, Huntington Beach Union High School District, Centralia School District, Westminster School District and more. According to EdSource, nearly 60% of California school board races had zero or just one candidate this election cycle.

Read about all 37 school board contests in Orange County on SpotlightSchools.com/Election2026.

🗳️ More Election Resources

Find a voting location in O.C. near you by searching here.
The O.C. Register Voter Guide
CalMatters 2026 Voter Guide
EdSource Election Coverage

🗳️ Be sure to follow us on Instagram for election results after the polls close on Nov. 3.

2026 Standardized Test Scores Released

The results from the 2026 California Assessment of Student Performance and Progress (CAASPP) were released on Oct. 15. Students in grades 3-8, and 11 take the tests annually. The latest results reflect their performance from the spring of 2026.
CAASPP results are classified into four achievement levels based on student performance:
🔵 Advanced: student is exceeding the grade-level standard
🟢 Proficient: student is meeting the grade-level standard
🟡 Developing: student shows developing grade-level skills
🔴 Minimal: student demonstrates minimal grade-level knowledge
The Orange County average showed 59.17% of students met or exceeded state standards in English language arts (ELA) compared with the statewide average of 49.26% of students. For math across O.C., an average of 50.20% of test-takers met or exceeded standards. Statewide the average for math was 38.35%.

2026 Average CAASPP scores for Orange County students. (Source: https://caaspp-elpac.ets.org/)

The top-performing district in Orange County was the Fountain Valley School District, which serves about 6,000 students at 10 schools in grades TK-8. It had the highest level of achievement in both ELA and math. In ELA, 80.08% of FVSD students met or exceeded state standards. In math, 76.34% were meeting or exceeding standards.
The Laguna Beach Unified School District, which serves students at four schools, had the highest CAASPP scores among unified school districts in O.C. For ELA, 78.34% of LBUSD students met or exceeded standards. In math, 73.27% of students were meeting or exceeding standards. At the Oct. 8 meeting of the LBUSD Board of Education, district staff made a presentation on the 2026 CAASPP scores. Speakers also showed how El Morro Elementary School improved student achievement in math, boosting proficiency from 68% in 2024–25 to 79% in 2025–26.
The Los Alamitos Unified School District had the third highest ELA scores in O.C. with 76.72% of its students meeting or exceeding standards. In math, it had the fourth highest scores with 68.87% of students meeting or exceeding standards. This represents an increase from 2025 when math scores were 64.43%. The district took a closer look at CAASPP results during an Oct. 20 Board of Education workshop. Deputy Superintendent Ondrea Reed explained the various metrics the district uses to measure students' performance as well as the programs and efforts the district uses to increase proficiency, including the new Middle School Academies, first piloted last school year.

Los Alamitos USD Board of Education workshop on Oct. 20 reviewed CAASPP results and other metrics the district uses to measure students' performance.

👀 Check out how all of the districts in O.C. performed in our Instagram series. Or search for your school's CAASPP results on EdSource.

Declining Enrollment and School Consolidation

Watch the discussion and vote on Tijeras Creek Elementary from the Oct. 15 CUSD Board of Education meeting.

Citing ongoing declining enrollment, the Capistrano Unified School District voted on Oct. 15 to close Tijeras Creek Elementary School at the end of the 2026-27 school year. The district estimates the move will save around $700,000. There is no current plan on how the campus in Rancho Santa Margarita might be repurposed, according to CUSD Superintendent Chris Brown, Ed.D.
This follows CUSD's consolidation of Clarence Lobo Elementary and Marblehead Elementary at the end of last school year. The former Lobo campus is now being used by California Republic Leadership Academy, a charter school. Del Obispo Elementary was also closed at the end of last school year to be repurposed into an early childhood education center.
Future school consolidation is being discussed by the district's active School Capacity and Consolidation Committee.
While some CUSD schools are being closed, the district is also building a new campus in the growing community of Rancho Mission Viejo. Rienda TK-8 is expected to open at the start of the 2027-28 school year.

Other recent stories from Spotlight Schools: