Local organizations share 2026 School Board endorsements

Several key organizations in the Culver City community have revealed their endorsements for the 2026 Culver City Unified School District Board of Education Race.

The Culver City Democratic Club announced its endorsements for the three open Board seats in the 2026 General Election in a press release last Tuesday. The group held its vote during a meeting on June 10, resulting in endorsements for all three incumbents: Brian Guerrero, Stephanie Loredo, and Triston Ezidore.

CCUSD’s teachers’ union, the Culver City Federation of Teachers, also endorsed Guerrero and Loredo, but voted to endorse the race's fourth candidate — Darrel Menthe — over Ezidore.

A forum was held by the Democratic Club on June 1, where Culver City Crossroads publisher and editor Judith Martin Straw asked the four candidates questions crafted by the Democratic Club membership. This forum saw candidates sharing their views on curriculum, the district’s finances, and other key issues facing CCUSD today, and helped lead its membership to endorse the three incumbents.

"Their vision is rooted in the belief that progress should benefit everyone and that our future is strongest when it is built together." Club President Jeanna Harris said in a press release. "We are proud to stand behind our endorsed candidates and urge all voters to support them this election."

CCFT held its own forum in April focused on issues more directly related to their union. The potential for improved salary and benefits almost always tops the list for the union, but that is not the only policy concern from the union’s membership. Issues such as input on district decision-making and the condition and cleanliness of facilities were among the main concerns raised by CCUSD teachers to Board candidates.

“Some of our members also talked about visibility and how easy it was to communicate with [board members],” CCFT President Ray Long told Culver Crescent. “Of course, one of the questions asked was ‘what have you done for our union?’”

Unlike in previous years, CCFT expanded its decision-making power to its entire membership. Teachers from several CCUSD schools asked questions during the forum, and the union's overall membership had much more influence on the endorsements than in previous years. This is a first-time deviation from their usual process, led by the union’s Committee on Political Education (COPE), stemming from the union’s overall membership's desire for a more active role in the political process.

“We wanted to really listen to what our membership wanted to do this year,” Long explained.

To receive an endorsement from the Federation of Teachers, support was required from at least 60% of the close to 400 members of the teachers’ union, as well as 60% of the COPE. In addition to the forum open to teachers and the public, the COPE also held private interviews with the candidates as part of its decision-making process.

Long hopes that people see the union’s endorsement as one representative of Culver City’s teachers' desires, not just as a politically savvy group within the union.  

“This speaks to what the teachers, counselors, nurses, speech language pathologists, program specialists, all the people we represent,” Long said of the CCFT endorsement. “[It’s] who they support and who they see as supportive.”

View the Culver City Democratic Club’s candidate forum here, and CCFT’s forum here.