All three school board members appointed by Mayor London Breed in the aftermath of a recall election earlier this year lead over remaining candidates as of Tuesday’s first round of results.
Lisa Weissman-Ward, Lainie Motamedi and Ann Hsu have the highest number of votes, at 23%, 20% and 19% of the vote, respectively. Challenger Alida Fisher is in fourth place with 16% of the votes, according to the San Francisco Department of Elections.
Breed appointed Motamedi, Hsu and Weissman-Ward after voters recalled three school board members in February. The three board members—Gabriela López, Alison Collins and Faauuga Moliga—were recalled in a landslide of upward of 68% each during a special election that garnered 36% of registered voters.
Had they survived the recall, all three would have been up for reelection on Tuesday.
López, who jumped in the race to reclaim her seat at the last minute, garnered 12% of the votes as of Tuesday night. She had expressed a desire to go before voters during a regular election with higher turnout.
Karen Fleshman, a diversity consultant, came in last with 10% votes.
Since the recall, school board dynamics shifted considerably. This was largely seen in the decision to restore special admissions of Lowell High School, which the previous board ended in a move toward equity but ended up being key to the recall’s success.
Hsu caused controversy with remarks made in a candidate questionnaire that stereotyped Black and Brown families, attributing “lack of parental engagement” as the main cause for a gap in student performance. The school board admonished her in August, but the comments hung over the election.
The final result may take weeks as the city counts the remaining ballots.