Three enter race for seats on Del Mar school district board

Filing period opens for November election

Monday, July 12, was the first day to pull papers for candidacy in the upcoming November election and already three candidates have entered the race for the three open positions on the Del Mar Union School District Board of Trustees.

So far, Ocean Air parent Scott Wooden, Ashley Falls parent Doug Rafner and Del Mar resident Jason Maletic have tossed their hats in the ring.

Candidates have until Aug. 6 to file. Current board president Steven McDowell said he does plan on entering the election but it may be for a different office. He said he won’t make a decision for another week.

Trustees up for re-election, Katherine White and Annette Easton, could not be reached by press time.

Candidate Maletic is the general manager of Blue Coast Consulting, a construction, consulting and inspection company in Del Mar, and currently serves as the vice president of the Del Mar Villas Association.

Candidates Rafner, a Carmel Valley attorney, and Wooden, the director of protein bioscience at Eli Lilly, plan to run as a team.

“I don’t want to call it a slate,” Rafner said, “rather two fathers who have seen what’s gone on over the past couple of years and felt that we could take the wheel and steer the ship back on course.”

Rafner is in attendance at nearly every district board meeting and was a member of the financial task force. He said he hopes to repair a community that has been broken and, as a lawyer who just started a mediation firm, he feels he can help bring order to a district and board he said has struggled to get along.

Wooden’s interest in the district was piqued when his school’s principal, Gary Wilson, resigned and left for a new school district.

“It opened my eyes to what was going on. Every action put me closer to running,” said Wooden, who for three years has been president of the Torrey Woods Estates homeowners association.

Wooden said he aims to restore what he calls the “three Rs”: Responsibility, Relationships and Respect. He said respect is especially important when it comes to supporting teachers and administration, as well as the community. He said parents and schools have been pitted against each other and he’d instead like to see people working together to help Del Mar continue to be a great district.