First of two parts
[img]1248|right|Laura Chardiet||no_popup[/img]Even though she has been a quickly recognizable whirlwind for years in the school community, the suspicion lurks that Culver City is on the brink of getting to know Laura Chardiet much better.
Now she has more visibility than she ever had with the PTA, a bully pulpit that will keep her words, if not her face, in lights.
As the perky new president of the School Board, new times are coming to meetings that are guaranteed to no longer suffer droughts of dustiness.
Blending casualness and deadly seriousness, Ms. Chardiet, once and possibly future actress, will keep the game ball in not only perpetual but also compelling motion.
Quips roll out of her as swiftly as if she had a magical script pasted just beneath the hairline of her one-of-a-kind red hair.
Ms. Chardiet, mother of two who has been buzzingly active since they entered school, succeeds her close friend Kathy Paspalis.
While both ladies barely rise five feet from heels to head, their styles are as different as dinosaurs and hamsters.
“Because we are close, we can be very honest with each other,” Ms. Chardiet said this morning. “This is great because we know what our flaws are. Friends can point those out to each other and help each other.”
Both of them have been out of school for several semesters, but when the two diminutive women put their heads together, they closely resemble schoolgirls, possibly planning homework.
[img]2005|right|Kathy Paspalis||no_popup[/img]Although affable off-stage, Ms. Paspalis, an attorney and mother of twins, is known for her directness, rather a no-nonsense approach.
Ms. Chardiet sees another side. “Kathy cracks me up,” she says. “I think she is hysterical. You know how people say ‘I get you’? We have that kind of sympatico relationship.
“I tend to enjoy people with an edge who are amusingly irreverent. I know it does not amuse some people but I like it. That is one of the reasons ours is a good friendship.
“Before Tuesday night’s meeting, I texted her ‘Just make sire I don’t sing tonight. Tell me not to sing.’”
(Ms. Chardiet owns a professionally trained voice and breaks into song without having her wrists and upper arms aimed in opposing directions.)
Less than two weeks ago, Ms. Chardiet wrote and, with the cooperative voice of Maren Neufeld, they jointly performed a putative campaign song for City Councilman Jim Clarke at his re-election kickoff event.
(To be continued)
