*Updated March 31 There were seven Latino candidates in the L.A. Unified school board race for the Board District 5 seat, but Huntington Park Councilwoman Graciela Ortíz was the only one who came close to making it into a runoff. Only 31 votes separated Ortíz from second-place finisher Heather Repenning, but on Wednesday Ortíz announced...

There will be no recount in the L.A. Unified school board race. Huntington Park Councilwoman Graciela Ortíz, who narrowly missed a spot in the May runoff election by 31 votes, decided Wednesday not to challenge the March 5 primary results that the county certified last Friday. Her decision came hours before the deadline to request a...

*Updated March 27 As the race for the school board seat in L.A. Unified’s Board District 5 officially heads to a runoff, Jackie Goldberg has yet to break a sweat. With ardent backing from the teachers union, the 74-year-old former school board member nabbed 15,935 votes — 48.18 percent of the 33,074 total primary ballots...

*Updated March 27 After what she called a challenging campaign, Heather Repenning — an L.A. Unified parent and former mayoral aide — is “optimistic” she will defeat frontrunner Jackie Goldberg in the May runoff for the District 5 school board seat. “I want to be a fighter, especially for the kids that are the underdog...

*Updated March 25 Former L.A. city official Heather Repenning and teachers union-pick Jackie Goldberg are officially headed to a May runoff for L.A. Unified’s Board District 5 school board seat, as the county registrar certified the March 5 primary results on Friday. Goldberg had been leagues ahead of the race’s nine other candidates since election...

*UPDATE: The county announced Thursday, March 21, that six more ballots have been counted in the race this week, and all went to Jackie Goldberg. There is still a 31-vote difference between Heather Repenning, who is in second place and thus eligible for the runoff election, and the closest competitor, Graciela Ortíz. The county will...

*Updated March 15 The top three finishers in L.A. Unified’s Board District 5 election retained their positions after Tuesday’s vote count, though the race for second place narrowed to only 35 votes. A runoff election on May 14 is now certain, as Jackie Goldberg is 596 votes shy of a majority and there are fewer than...

*Updated March 7 The Board District 5 special election in L.A. Unified is almost certainly headed to a runoff, with teachers union favorite Jackie Goldberg clinching just shy of half the votes while her future opponent remains undetermined. Goldberg, a former school board member and vocal charter critic, received 48.26 percent of the vote with...

On Tuesday, L.A. Unified’s Board District 5 will hold a special election to fill a school board seat that’s been vacant since last year, potentially determining whether the board swings more pro-reform or more pro-union. The board district’s students — who are nearly 90 percent Latino — haven’t had a representative since last July, when education reformer...

*Updated March 4 Tuesday is the special election to fill the school board seat in L.A. Unified’s Board District 5. The person elected will become part of the seven-member school board that decides on policies, budget and approval of charter schools in L.A. Unified, which is the largest school district in California and second-largest in...