OCEANSIDE

Area Number 5, on the eastern portion of the district, incumbent Mike Blessing is running for re-election against challengers Todd Maddison and Susana Arvizu.

Evans has served as a school board member for Oceanside Unified since 2016. She could not be reached for comment, but her biography on the Oceanside Unified website states that she has lived in Oceanside for 30 years and has taught elementary and secondary education in the Oceanside Unified School

District and the San Diego Unified School District for 48 years. She was also an adjunct professor in the School of Education at San Diego State University and taught economics at the MiraCosta and San Diego community college districts. In her biography, Evans states that her priorities include sufficiently funding classrooms and closing achievement gaps for students.

Blessing, 68, has been a school board member in Oceanside since 2008 and currently serves as board president. He worked for the city of Oceanside for more than 40 years in planning and development and helped establish joint-use neighborhood school and park facilities.

“I believe I am uniquely qualified to serve on the board based upon my 40 years of public policy and planning experience,” Blessing said. “I know the city and its residents and I understand that open and responsive institutions are prized in this city.”

His two sons attended Oceanside schools from kindergarten until graduation from El Camino High School, he said.

If re-elected, he said, he will work “to get our kids back to school as quickly and safely as possible, to build school facilities quickly and cost-effectively, and seek public input.

“And finally, if elected, I will maintain my commitment to provide music, art, sports and vocational training opportunities so that well-rounded young adults graduate from our schools, college and career ready, and are prepared to take on the challenges of the world,” Blessing said.

Maddison, 60, is a parent advocate who works part time as a data analyst and previously worked as director of service for Tweeter Entertainment, as the CEO of a television repair company, and as a project manager for Toshiba.

He served as parent representative on Oceanside Unified’s Local Control Accountability Plan Committee and also on the Parent Advisory Committee, helped found the Oceanside Parents 4 Kids PTO group, and is a member of the El Camino High School site council. He also sits on the executive council of the Patient and Family Advisory Committee at the UC San Diego Moores Cancer Center.

Maddison has lived in the district for almost 20 years and moved to the district because of its schools. Two of his three children attended El Camino High School, and one is a junior at the school. He said he is running in response to fiscal crises in the district and said the district has approved raises at the expense of students.

“That financial mismanagement has led to poor academic performance and put them on the brink of being taken over by the state. All with my opponent’s vote of approval,” he said. “We need someone willing to say ‘no’ to cutting from our kids to benefit adults.”

Arvizu is also listed with the San Diego County Registrar of Voters as a candidate for Trustee Area Number 5, but could not be reached for comment.