Ochsenhirt, Acosta, Lucy take board seats: Longtime incumbent ousted, seven ran for S.S.F. school district

Seven candidates ran for three open seats. Weise was up for re-election and ultimately finished in fourth in the race with 2,603 votes, while Lucy filled former trustee Liza Normandy’s role after she was elected to the South San Francisco City Council. Former trustee Shirlee Hoch’s seat was also up. She submitted her letter of resignation last November after a struggle with her health for the last couple of years. John Baker, Patricia Murray and Sue Olinger, who finished third with 2,731 votes, also ran. Candidate Monica Peregrina Boyd dropped out of the race in September.

The top vote-getter, Ochsenhirt, has served as chair of the Measure J bond oversight committee and was a past member of Measure C oversight committee. He currently serves as a South San Francisco planning commissioner.

“I look forward to serving on the board,” Ochsenhirt said. “I’m looking forward to working with the other board members. I think it’s a statement by the voters of South San Francisco and the faith they have in me.”

Lucy is a correctional officer for the San Mateo County Sheriff’s Office and started the Alternative to Expulsion program in the district. He said he’d like to see a better relationship between the board and community.

“My goals are the same things; we definitely need to keep that transparency going,” he said. “We have two brand-new board members — that will be interesting.”

Lucy was a little surprised with the results and said he is shocked Baker didn’t do as well as he should have.

“It’s a big loss to the school district; I hope he runs in 2016,” he said. “It’s gonna be sad to see Phil leave — he’s done good things for the district — but we need some new blood.”

Weise, who has served on the board for more than 16 years, could not be reached for comment Tuesday night.

The other winner, Acosta, has worked for the city of South San Francisco for 13 years and has more than 10 years of school involvement as a room parent volunteer, along with work as a former PTA board member.

During the race, candidates expressed concerns about professional development for the new Common Core education standards that focus more on using technology in the classroom. Concern over high teacher turnover was also expressed.

Three of the candidates in this race applied for the slot that Lucy took over back in January. The board was also going to fill Hoch’s spot during the application process in January, but it found out that it would have had to initiate the appointment process within 60 days of Hoch’s filing her deferred resignation, which occurred Nov. 18, 2013. Since that 60-day period had already passed, the board had to fill the vacancy during the November general election.

angela@smdailyjournal.com

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