Laguna Beach USD prez won't seek reelection, UCI professor joins ballot

Key points

• 2022 was uncontested: three seats up; three candidates filed (Dee Perry reelection, Jim Kelly reelection, Joan Malczewski new). No election held.
• Normandin exit framing: "I'm an optimist so if we survived [the pandemic] being a board member this term would be the easiest four years ever" — eight years on the board cited as enough.
• Confirms Peggy Wolff's step-down date: "Normandin … succeeded former president Peggy Wolff after she stepped down in late 2020." Resolves a prior vault open question about Wolff's tenure end-date.
• Malczewski candidate statement (verbatim): "This past year I volunteered two mornings each week at TOW and witnessed the extraordinary educational opportunities that our schools offer. I will support our committed educators and parents who care deeply about the needs of our children."
• Kelly's 2022 reelection rationale: "I finally feel that I've made it through orientation and I know how everything works and who all the players are. I feel that I can be much more helpful to the district at this time."
• Kelly's claimed first-term (2018-2022) accomplishments: hiring a second school resource officer, a second nurse, and multiple counselors to support students' social-emotional health.
• Malczewski biographical detail: UC Irvine associate history professor; Columbia doctorate 2002; visiting scholar at Stanford GSE; 2016 U Chicago Press book on Jim Crow-era black education reform; mother of five (youngest a 5th-grader at TOW).