INDIAN RIVER COUNTY — There are two seats open on the Indian River County School Board, which is a nonpartisan race, District 3 and District 5.
In the primary, for District 3, Laura Zorc bested her opponent, Douglas Wight, by a wide margin. Zorc won with 17,230 votes or 60.11 percent of the votes and Wight lost with 11,434 votes or nearly 40 percent of the votes.
Zorc has been active in school politics for the last three years, forming an anti-Common Core organization with over 20,000 members. She also serves on the various education committees.
“This didn’t happen overnight,” she said of her win. “I’ve been working hard and this was the next step.”
Zorc still has to face Stephen Sczurek in the general election because he is a write-in candidate, part of the election process reserved until then, which does not occur during primary elections.
For the District 5 seat, Tiffany Justice also won by a large margin over John Kim. She got 17,416 votes or 60.32 percent of the votes and Kim got 11,459 votes or nearly 40 percent of the votes.
Justice could not be reached for comment.
Zorc was in favor of the 0.50 mills property tax referendum, which also passed. Property owners will pay 50 cents per $1,000 of property value, starting July 1, 2017 through June 30, 2021. The revenue will be used to pay for 31 teachers, technology and to expand the vocational education program.
“It’s going to make my job easier at first because it will make it easier to fund these programs,” Zorc said. “But we’re going to have to get started on day one to wean ourselves off this money so we don’t have to go back to voters again in four years.”