All 3 appointed Board of Education Members expected to win their first re-election

(SAN FRANCISCO) Three incumbents, Lisa Weissman-Ward, Lainie Motamedi, and Ann Hsu, who were appointed by Mayor London Breed earlier this year to the Board of Education, are all expected to be re-elected in the November election.

Hsu, who is in the third place with about 7,000 votes more than the fourth place candidate, Alida Fisher, has not been determined to win yet.

The Department of Elections are still in the process of counting more ballots which are mostly sent by mail on or before the November 8 election day. The latest election results as of November 9 show that three incumbents are securely holding the top three seats.

All three incumbents were appointed to fill in the vacant seats after three former School Board Members, Gabriela Lopez, Allison Collins and Faauuga Moliga, were recalled by the voters in the February election.

Three candidates had filed to run for the Board of Education and challenge three incumbents, including the recalled former Board of Education President Lopez. The latest election results indicate that Lopez was in fifth place. Alida Fisher was ranked in fourth place behind Hsu.

In July, Hsu issued a public apology for making insensitive statements related to the African and Hispanic American students and parents. Hsu was criticized and called for resignation by both ethnic communities, including Board of Supervisors African American President Shamann Walton and Chinese American Supervisor Connie Chan.

It has been speculated that Hsu would not share the same support from voters as Weissman-Ward and Motamedi because of the controversy of her racial-related statements.

The success of securing three top seats of Board of Education in the election is considered to be contributed by an independent expenditure campaign run by SF Guardians, which was founded by the same leaders of the Recall the School Board movement, Siva Raj and Autumn Loojien.

SF Guardians said on Twitter that they endorsed all three candidates due to their dedication to “student outcomes”.

“The three members appointed by Mayor London Breed have been fulfilling their promise to bring the board back to its core function and away from further contretemps,” SF Guardians stated.

As more ballots are counted in the following days, more election results are put into the system, the community can look at more deeply if the Asian votes would influence the result of the school board election and help Hsu being elected.