No need for her to campaign at all

Andrew Edwards

Posting signs, making tons of phone calls and knocking on doors

around the neighborhood are all parts of running a campaign for local

office, and Celia Jaffe does not have to do any of them.

Jaffe, 43, will not have her name on the ballot, but is guaranteed

a seat on the Huntington Beach City School District’s board. She was

the only person to file as a candidate for the seat vacated by former

board member Robert Mann when he retired in June.

“I can’t say I’m not disappointed not having to run a campaign,”

Jaffe said.

Jaffe came close to winning a school board seat in 1998 when she

came in fourth in a contest where three seats were up for grabs.

Though she called that campaign a “watershed experience” in her life,

she said her PTA duties kept her too busy to serve on the board, and

was not sure if she could do better on a second try.

“I also felt the first time I ran, that as strong a campaign as I

could do,” Jaffe said.

Able to take a break from the campaign trail, Jaffe has gotten a

head start on preparing to work on the school board, studying the

district’s budget and long-range plans. She said she is eager to be a

part of the school board that she has watched for so many years as a

PTA official.

“I’m chomping at the bit at this point,” she said.

Jaffe was raised in San Mateo and the town of Winona, Minn. She

returned to Northern California to attend college at Stanford

University. While a student, she was in the stands at the infamous

football game versus Cal when the Golden Bears ran “The Play,” a

five-lateral kick return right through the Stanford band for a big

win.

After her university days, Jaffe became a high school teacher and

taught at schools in Los Altos and a suburb near Richmond, Va. She

knew she wanted to spend her life in a classroom well before she

started college.

“I’d wanted to be a teacher forever, since first or second-grade,”

Jaffe said. “It was never anything else.”

However, Jaffe’s teaching career came to an end with the birth of

her first child, Diana. When Diana started kindergarten, Jaffe began

a new era in her life as a classroom volunteer and PTA member.

Jaffe’s children, Diana and Jacob, both attend Edison High School

and Jaffe has been active in PTA leadership throughout her children’s

school lives. She has held the PTA presidency at Eader Elementary and

Sowers Middle schools and in 2002 was the top official at the

Huntington Union Council, which is an umbrella group for PTAs serving

Surf City, Fountain Valley and Westminster.

“I think she will make a great school board person because she’s

been dedicated to the school district for years and years,” said

Martha Wait-Hubner, a vice-president with the Parent Teacher Student

Assn. at Huntington Beach High School.

Though voters will not be able to decide whether or not they want

to vote for Jaffe, she wanted to encourage people to do their

homework before casting their ballots.

“I’d like to think people would really look into the candidates,”

Jaffe said.