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By Brian Hews
It wasn’t even close.
Voters on Tuesday overwhelming reelected three veteran members of the Downey Unified School District Board of Education, and all three of the wins were of landslide proportions.
The winners included incumbents Martha Sodetani, Barbara Samperi and Nancy Swenson.
Here is a breakdown of the results.
Area 1: Incumbent Martha Sodetani garnered 605 votes for 90.30%, and her challenger Victor M Malagon took home 65 votes for 9.70%.
Area 3: Incumbent Nancy Swenson got 372 votes for 77.02% of the total compared to challenger John Anagnostou with 111 votes for 22.98%.
Area 7: Incumbent Barbara R. Samperi turned back three challengers and scored 346 votes for 60.81%. Coming in second was Betty Luz Monroy, with 131 votes for 23.02%; Bertha R. Valenzuela ended with 64 votes with 11.25% and challenger Leslie J. Valencia trailed with 28 votes for 4.92%.
“I am very excited in getting reelected. I am looking forward to bringing back little kid sports, keeping our schools safe, our test scores high and to provide a top education for all of our students,” Samperi said in an interview on Wednesday.
“We have a lot of great things happening here at Downey Unified School District, and the voters understand and appreciate the amount of work that we have put into our schools for the past several years. These are great times here at Downey Unified and we have lots to look forward too,” said Samperi.
“Everyone has a right to run, but you need to be passionate about our students and you need to be engaged as a candidate,” Samperi said.
Swearing in for the three incumbents will be held on December 10 at 5 p.m. at the Downey Unified School District Offices located at 11627 Brookshire Ave. The public is invited to attend the ceremony.
