By Kathryn Reed

Wendy David is the clear winner of one of the two Lake Tahoe Unified School District board of education seats, while five votes separate newcomer Judy Cefalu and incumbent Duane Wallace.

Wendy David

This will be David’s fourth term on the five-member board.

“I look forward to creating things instead of eliminating things,” David said as she watched the returns come in Tuesday night. As a board member for the last 12 years she knows about eliminating jobs, programs and schools.

With construction well under way at South Tahoe High School, she knows these next four years will be about building facilities and programs.

She admitted she was more relaxed this go-round.

“I feel really good about where the school district is so I feel good about running as an incumbent,” David said.

It was like night and day the difference between the David and Cefalu residences on Election Night.

The Davids, Wendy and Kerry, are both veterans of nights like this; with a computer logging results and friends in attendance watching anxiously.

Judy Cefalu didn’t know the results until Lake Tahoe News called just after 11pm. Her husband, John, who spearheaded Measure B was already in bed. Son Chris, a South Tahoe Public Utility District candidate, couldn’t be reached.

With 100 percent of the precincts counted, David had 40.12 percent of the vote or 1,967 votes; Cefalu had 29.66 percent or 1,454 votes; and Wallace had 29.55 percent or 1,449 votes.

Having not been aware the votes were in, Cefalu did not have much to say beyond “my goodness.”

Wallace was off to bed knowing a handful of votes separated him from Cefalu.

“Either way I will be OK. I have enjoyed being on it so far,” Wallace said. “If Judy wins, I think she will do a good job.” Wallace was appointed this summer to fill the rest of Angela Swanson’s term.

The outcome of close elections like these has been known to change after provisional votes are counted. Those are the ballots where something about the voter has been questioned – signature, identification, the name isn’t on the electoral roll, that sort of thing.