The Brief

If you're looking for live results in this election, we have you covered: Newport Mesa Unified early results show school board challenger in the lead

A June 10 special election for the Newport-Mesa Unified school board will fill the seat for Area 5 in Newport Beach, made vacant when former board member Michelle Barto was elected to the Newport Beach City Council last year.

The winner of this election will serve out the rest of Barto’s term, which ends in December 2026.

There’s some political backstory here.

When Barto’s seat became vacant, the school board voted, 4-2, to appoint occupational therapist Kirstin Walsh to serve the remainder of the term. But that vote was overridden weeks later when a petition gathered enough signatures to force a special election instead. (In this case, the threshold was only 289 signatures, and the petition received 361.) Walsh is now running for the seat against Andrea McElroy, a businessperson.

What does the Newport-Mesa Unified school board do?

• Hire and fire the superintendent.
• Pass the annual budget (roughly $470 million for this year) and decide how it should be distributed.
• Set district-wide policies, such as use of cellphones in schools or curriculum changes.
• Oversee construction, repairs and improvements to school facilities and infrastructure.

Fast facts about Newport-Mesa Unified

• The district serves about 18,000 students at 33 schools in Newport Beach, Corona del Mar and Costa Mesa. Area 5, the region electing a trustee for the June 10 election, is made up of the areas surrounding Newport Elementary, Ensign Intermediate and Newport Harbor High.
• Newport-Mesa is one of a handful of “community funded” school districts in California, meaning it’s primarily funded through its own budget and receives less state money than other districts, due to having higher property tax revenues. 
• These board seats are nonpartisan, so individual trustees don’t represent any specific political party’s stances (although they may have their own personal political leanings).
• While many Orange County school districts have been political battlegrounds over issues like parental notification policies, book banning, critical race theory and more, Newport-Mesa has largely stayed out of these controversies. Nevertheless, both Area 5 candidates have hinted at their stances on certain political issues (more details in the candidate overviews below).

What’s on the agenda for next term:

• Transitional kindergarten. All California school districts are required to make transitional kindergarten — known as TK — available to four-year-olds in the state by the 2025-26 school year. While most districts get funding for TK programs through the state, Newport-Mesa is one of the exceptions — it funds TK entirely through its own budget. As a result, the school board will have to balance the funding needs of TK programs with the rest of the budget.
• Infrastructure upgrades. Last year Newport-Mesa released its facilities master plan, which outlines priorities for improving and upgrading the district’s aging buildings. Funding the plan must also come out of the district’s budget, so the board will have to find ways to shore up the funding to see it through. 

Meet the candidates

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Courtesy Kirstin Walsh

)

Kirstin Walsh

Parent/occupational therapist

Walsh, a parent of two students at Newport Harbor High School, is a licensed pediatric occupational therapist. According to her ballot statement, she has actively served as a volunteer for Newport-Mesa schools for 13 years and is currently PTA president at Newport Harbor High. She served as the Area 5 trustee for Newport-Mesa Unified for five weeks before the petition triggered the June special election.

Walsh has said that improving the infrastructure of school facilities should be a top priority for the board. In a January interview with the board, she said she does “not personally have an agenda” of what she specifically wants to accomplish as a trustee and is “not politically based.”

In response to a candidate application question from the board, Walsh wrote that she agreed with California’s AB 1955 law, which prevents schools from requiring staff to notify parents if a student identifies as LGBTQ. Walsh also wrote that she is "against the banning of books," and also believes that there are "appropriate settings for books that might require a more mature reader."

Go deeper:

• Two candidates emerge in race to fill vacant seat on Newport-Mesa Unified board of trustees (Daily Pilot)

More voter resources:

• Website: WalshForNMUSD.com 
• Endorsements: See full list here
• Official candidate statement
• Candidate application questionnaire
• Jan. 27 Newport-Mesa Unified board interview (starts at 40:17)

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Courtesy Andrea McElroy

)

Andrea McElroy

Businesswoman/parent

McElroy is a parent of three grown children who attended Newport-Mesa schools and is the co-founder and owner of Flair Play Active, a women’s clothing brand. She previously owned the Paper House, a stationery store in Newport Beach. She volunteered at Newport-Mesa schools while her daughter was in school, including for the theater program at Newport Heights Elementary.

McElroy says she wants to expand opportunities for the district’s students in career trade education, the arts and developing real-world skills. “Life skills such as grammar, cursive writing and penmanship, managing and understanding personal finances and understanding taxes are essential,” she wrote in her candidate application.

She has criticized the political alignment of the Newport-Mesa school board, writing on her campaign website that the board majority is “beholden to the career politicians in Sacramento, resulting in a decline in standards in our school district.”

She also wrote on her ballot statement that schools should focus on “fundamentals over Sacramento’s culture wars,” and “limit the indoctrinating efforts of programs like ethnic studies curriculum.”

McElroy and her former businesses were previously targets of lawsuits alleging breach of contract, unpaid rent and other claims, but she told the Daily Pilot that critics were misrepresenting her record.

Go deeper: 

• Two candidates emerge in race to fill vacant seat on Newport-Mesa Unified board of trustees (Daily Pilot)
• Lawsuits filed against candidate for NMUSD school board raise concern from opponents; she alleges ‘smear’ job (Daily Pilot)

More voter resources:

• Website: McElroy4NMUSD.com
• Endorsements: See full list here
• Official candidate statement
• Candidate application questionnaire
• Jan. 27 Newport-Mesa Unified board interview (starts at 19:35)

LAX officials are considering a proposal Tuesday to increase the fees rideshare companies are charged to access the airport.

Currently, rideshare companies like Uber and Lyft generally pass a $4 to $5 airport fee along to their customers. You might see this listed as a line item on your receipt as an “LAX Airport Surcharge.”

But the Los Angeles World Airports Board of Commissioners could vote to increase that fee by as much as $2 to $8 depending on where the rideshare picks you up or drops you off.

The idea behind the proposal is to encourage the use of the long-awaited, much-delayed and over-budget Automated People Mover once it opens and decrease congestion in the central terminal area, the area of the airport that’s also known as the horseshoe.

David Reich, a deputy executive director for the city agency that manages the airport, told LAist that if the proposal is approved, LAX doesn’t plan on increasing the fee until after the Automated People Mover opens, which could be later this year.

The proposed increases

When the Automated People Mover opens, there will be new curb space for drop-off and pick-up. Known as the “ground transport center,” this new curb space will be a 4-minute trip from the terminal area via the Automated People Mover, according to Reich.

LAX-it will shut down as a rideshare and taxi lot once the train opens, Reich said.

If the proposal is approved, getting an Uber or Lyft to and from the ground transport center will come with a $6 airport fee.

Even once the Automated People Mover opens, you will still be able to get rides directly to and from the curbs along the horseshoe, but they will come with a $12 fee.

The proposed increases would also apply to taxi and limousine services, which currently operate under a slightly different fee structure than rideshare companies.

The increased fees are expected to generate as much as $100 million in the first year the Automated People Mover is usable, according to a report to the board.

Why the different fees for the different locations?

In a report to the board, Reich said the Automated People Mover represents a "significant investment” that aims to “fundamentally reshape how vehicles move through the airport.”

The idea behind having a higher fee for direct access to the curbs along the horseshoe is to encourage “use of new, high-capacity infrastructure” and preserve central terminal access for trips “that most require it.”

Uber is trying to fight the increases

Uber is trying to mobilize the public to fight the proposed fee increases.

“Raising the LAX rideshare fee from $5 to $12 at the curb would punish travelers, working families, and seniors who depend on affordable, reliable transportation,” Danielle Lam, the head of local California policy for Uber, said in a statement.

On Monday, Uber sent an email to passengers who recently used the rideshare service, urging them to write to city officials to “stop this massive fee hike.”

Lyft has not responded to a request for comment.

Ten state lawmakers who are members of the L.A. County delegation sent a letter on Monday to the board expressing their “strong opposition” to the proposed increases.

“Many Angelenos rely on a mix of options, including rideshare services and friends or family dropping off loved ones,” the legislators wrote in the letter. “Managing congestion cannot realistically rely on steep fee increases for certain transportation options.”

Eight of the 10 legislators who signed the letter have received campaign contributions from Uber or Lyft, according to an LAist analysis of state campaign contribution data.

Other ways to access the airport

Now is probably a good time to remind folks that there are other ways to get to the airport that don’t involve rideshares, taxis or even lifts from families and friends.

The FlyAway bus offers regularly scheduled rides from the airport to Union Station in downtown L.A. and Van Nuys. You can see the schedules here. 

Last year, the countywide transportation agency unveiled the LAX/Metro Transit center, which is accessible from the C and K rail lines and several bus routes. For now, an LAX shuttle is bringing travelers from the station to the airport. It will be one of the stops on the Automated People Mover once it opens.

The Newport Beach City Council is considering demolishing part of its quirky, beloved sculpture garden in Civic Center Park to make way for a new police station.

The city has been trying to figure out how to replace its aging police headquarters for years. It bought a property in 2022 with that intent. But an ad hoc City Council committee decided, controversially, it might be better to instead build a new station on the parkland next to city hall.

What’s so great about the sculpture garden?

The sculpture garden is a “museum without walls” treasured by art and nature lovers alike. It houses the quirky and once-controversial “Bunnyhenge,” included on the popular Atlas Obscura travel guide. Opponents of putting a new police headquarters on park grounds say it would compromise the environment, and decimate the sculpture garden.

What do supporters of the new station idea say?

Supporters say the current police station, built in 1973, is long overdue for an upgrade, and that the police force needs more space for things like servers to store digital evidence. The council ad hoc committee that studied the issue says the Civic Center parkland makes the most sense for a new building because the city already owns the land, and it would consolidate the city’s main services in one place.

Is it a done deal?

Far from it. The City Council is holding a study session Tuesday to present the plan publicly and gather input. If the council decides to go forward, the next step would be to hire a consultant to design the building and get started on an environmental impact report.

Here’s how to learn more and weigh in:

A new exhibit in L.A. — Vehicles of Expression: The Craft of the Skateboard — arrives this weekend, highlighting the cultural impact, history and artistry of handmade skateboards.

It’s the latest exhibit at Craft in America Center, a museum and library that highlights handcrafted artwork.

Todd Huber, skateboard historian and founder of the Skateboarding Hall of Fame, said before 1962, it wasn’t possible to buy a skateboard in a store.

“Skateboarding started as a craft,” Huber said on AirTalk, LAst 89.3’s daily news program. “Somewhere in the 50s until 1962, if you wanted to sidewalk surf, as they called it, you had to make your own out of roller skates.”

What to expect

Emily Zaiden, the director and lead curator of the Craft in America Center based in Los Angeles, told LAist’s AirTalk the exhibit was tricky to curate.

“What we wanted to do was focus on both the history and then expand into how this has been an object that people have interpreted in so many different ways since the very beginning,” Zaiden said.

Artists who craft skateboards not only think of design, but also of the features that give riders the ability to do tricks, such as wheelies and kickflips.

“The ways that people have constructed boards, engineered boards, design boards … people are really renegade, which I think is really the spirit of skateboarding overall,” Zaiden said. “This very independent, out-of-the-box approach and making boards that allow them to do all kinds of wacky tricks and do all kinds of things that no one imagined possible physically with their body, but through the object of the board.”

Know before you go

The exhibit at Craft in America Center opens to the public on Saturday. Admission is free. The museum is open from noon to 6 p.m., Tuesday through Saturday.