Vacant seat on NMUSD’s Board of Education filled by former Newport Harbor High PTA president

Newport Harbor High Parent Teacher Assn. President Kirstin Walsh became the newest member of the school district’s board of education on Monday, filling a vacancy left behind by recently elected Newport Beach Councilwoman Michelle Barto.

The trustee’s seat representing Area 5 of the Newport-Mesa Unified School District, which includes Newport Elementary, Ensign Intermediate and Newport Harbor High School, has been open since Barto was sworn in as a council member in December. Walsh was one of four candidates interviewed by the district’s board during a special meeting earlier this week.

“Everything I’ve done over the past 13 years has led me to this point,” Walsh told trustees Monday. “... This feels like a very natural, organic next step in supporting the community.”

NMUSD’s newest trustee is a former pediatric occupational therapist who has lived in California for over 20 years. She’s the mother of a sophomore and a senior at Newport Harbor High and has been volunteering for NMUSD schools for 13 years.

Walsh served as that high school’s PTA president for the past two years. She previously held a similar role at Ensign Intermediate.

During her interview, she told trustees “I personally do not have an agenda,” and that she is receptive to input from all members of the community. She added that she has been “able to separate myself from being a PTA president and then being a mom” in order to make decisions that benefit the entire school body, not just her own family.

“We each try to listen to each other’s point of view,” Trustee Ashley Anderson said while explaining her support for Walsh. “It has not always been that way. And I think it’s really important to continue with that mindset. Each thing that comes to us ... it’s based on information that comes to us and is not based on national political things that are not necessarily relevant to us.”

Anderson as well as Board Vice President Leah Ersoylu and trustees Michelle Murphy and Carol Crane voted in favor of Walsh’s appointment. President Krista Weigand and trustee Lisa Pearson were opposed.

Pearson and Weigand acknowledged Walsh and other candidates’ merits for the trustee position. But they noted Barto had the support of 65% of voters when she was elected to the seat in 2022 and suggested someone with views similar to hers should be chosen.

The two trustees in the minority backed Andrea McElroy, the parent of a student who graduated from NMUSD. During her interview, the candidate said she wanted to promote classes in practical finances as well as early career education for youth interested in pursuing trades instead of going to college.

“My mission is to find someone who aligns with [Barto’s] values and, most importantly, the constituents’ values,” Pearson said. “And I believe that Andrea is that person.”

Michelle Barto is sworn into the Newport Beach City Council in December, leaving her seat on the Newport Mesa Unified School District vacant.

(James Carbone)

McElroy has been listed as a contributor of photos for social media posts supporting Barto’s campaigns for public office. Barto was endorsed by the Republican Party of Orange County.

Barto has issued at least one statement online apparently in favor of requiring schools to share information about children’s gender identity with their parents. That issue has come up at other districts in Southern California. A judge in San Bernardino County Superior court blocked in September a policy requiring such disclosures passed by the Chino Valley Unified School District.

In that same month, the Huntington Beach City Council approved a law declaring that Huntington Beach is a “Parents’ Right to Know city.” However, the panel only has the jurisdiction to set policy for those who work directly for the city. Teachers hired by local school districts and providing most of the instruction in the city’s schools are not subject to the ordinance.