At 5:30 yesterday afternoon, in the middle of a School Board meeting, Board President Scott Zeidman made a hauntingly prescient but offhanded remark.
In seeking support from his colleagues to agendize a matter for the next meeting, he began by saying, “While I am still on the Board…”
Little did he realize what lay ahead.
Hours later, he was ousted in stunning unofficial Election Day results.
Buoyed by an outpouring from four decades of former students and their virtually adoring parents, retired teacher Nancy Goldberg, riding a mountain-high tidal wave of popularity, stormed to a wall-to-wall victory in yesterday’s School Board election.
Seizing a relatively commanding lead with the first reported results, the absentee ballots, Ms. Goldberg breezed home by nearly 300 votes ahead of Laura Chardiet, an LAUSD administrator and PTA Councils executive.
If the results stand, both Ms. Goldberg and Ms. Chardiet will join the Board.
Ms. Chardiet’s slender 28-vote victory over Mr. Zeidman reminded observers of the last election in this town when City Council candidate Jeff Cooper nosed out Meghan Sahli-Wells by 31 votes in ’10.
Ironically, both Mr. Cooper and Ms. Sahli-Wells were at the Chardiet victory party at the home of Paul and Madeline Ehrlich.
When it was determined that Ms. Chardiet had won the second seat on the Board, she and her friends uncorked an act they performed they reflexively and often during the campaign, burst into infectious group singing, led by the song-and-dance-minded candidate.
Only then was there time for a champagne toast.
Ms. Goldberg and Ms. Chardiet will replace a discouraged Steve Gourley, who chose not to seek re-election, and a perspicacious Mr. Zeidman, who had hoped to duplicate his victory of four years ago.
Separately and together, they formed a thunder and lightning team with their contrasting but complementary “A” personalities at every Board meeting. Wresting control from veteran members the first hour of the first night, they instilled a perhaps unprecedented dynamism that will vanish as mercurially as it appeared.
The final count with all 13 precincts reporting after a fraction of the 24,617 registered voters participated :
Ms. Goldberg………2,213 34.49%
Ms. Chardiet………..1,926 30.01%
Mr. Zeidman………..1,898 29.58%
Robert Zirgulis………265 4.13%
Gary Abrams………….115 1.79%
The new personality of the Board will not vaguely resemble its predecessor.
Ms. Goldberg, probably the oldest candidate ever elected to the Board at 74, is expected to team philosophically with the youngest member in Board history, Karlo Silbiger, who will not turn 30 until next year. There is no doubt that they are political thinkalikes, with communal participation in their rearview mirrors and uppermost in their strategizing.
Ms. Chardiet and Kathy Paspalis are anticipated to be natural allies, leaving Prof. Patricia Siever as the potential tiebreaker.
Congratulatory Visit
At 12:10 this morning, Ms. Chardiet, bundled against the night-time chill, strode smilingly into Ms. Goldberg’s home, where her victory party was in its final moments. Stepping across the dining area, the jubilant runnerup threw her arms around the thrilled champion votegetter, hugging and smiling as they rocked.
The two beaming ladies, both looking at least as diminutive as their 5-foot-2 height, made a lovely portrait as the remaining Goldberg supporters cheered the new 40 percent of the School Board.
Eying people who were shooting pictures with their cell phones, Ms. Chardiet winked and called out, “You’ve got the winners.”
Ms. Chardiet, who laughs often, threw her head back and said she asked Ms. Goldberg, “Do you feel numb?”
Surrounded all evening by perhaps the largest crowd of well-wishers of any of the three victory parties, the disciplined Ms. Goldberg was elated but restrained, never budging from the calmness she displayed throughout the vote counting, which took a little more than two hours.
As both women absorbed the first-time ever feeling of being elected to a citywide office, a visitor said:
“So you two will be working together.”
Espying a slight opening to assert one of her core beliefs, Ms. Goldberg said, “Women always work well together.”
“There will be a lot of estrogen on that Board,” Ms. Chardiet cracked.
The beloved Ms. Goldberg said her first task as a member of the School Board will be to shift her new colleagues’ attention to the deferred maintenance problems that occupied part of her teaching time at Culver City High School — especially repairing or replacing water fountains.
The Incumbent’s View
Mr. Zeidman, who had been projected by many to be the top votegetter, started and finished the evening in third place, from the revelation of the absentee ballots, to the next station, with three precincts reporting, to nine precincts, and finally to all 13.
As the night wore on and fatigue set in for the youngest candidates, Mr. Zeidman announced about 11:15 that he was walking home, a block and a half away, and would learn the outcome in the morning.
In a low-key late night interview, Mr. Zeidman said the election would be a win-win proposition for him — “If I win, I get to finish what I started and serve another four years. If not, I will get to be a fulltime father again, and nothing can be more wonderful than that.”
