Carol Lear of Salt Lake City has an adult lifetime of direct connection to the state school board, between serving as a member or nearly three decades as the director of law and policy for the state Office of Education advising the board. Diane Livingston of Park City is running for the first time for the board, or any other position.By Tuesday night’s first results it was clear that Lear’s edge in experience, not to mention being in the right party for her Democratic-leaning district including a corner in Summit County, would give her an insurmountable lead out of the gate.Overall, Lear led with 62,400 votes to Livingston’s 22,682 as of the latest update Friday morning, or by 73%. In the unofficial count with 53% of the votes in Summit County counted, Lear led 6,406 to 2,757, or by 70% in the county alone.Lear said late Tuesday night she was watching results, and tracking the other district races. “All other school board districts as expected,” she wrote in an email. “Molly Hart and John Arthur are neck-and-neck. About 40 votes apart.”Livingston was still up around midnight as well. “I just don’t see how I can overcome that,” she said, looking over Lear’s lead. “I tried really, really hard, I did.”Running was worth it for the experience and people she met, she said. “You come out of it with a lot more than you went in with.”Will she run again? “Maybe.” Then, “Probably not,” she said. “What I had to offer isn’t exactly what the majority of people are looking for. That’s OK. All you can do is throw yourself out there.”Lear was still watching the other state school board races closely Wednesday afternoon, laughing heartily when asked if she was ready for four more years.“I thought she was a decent opponent,” Lear said later, noting that she could tell Livingston was working hard during her campaign.There were a couple of tougher moments with the candidates drawing out differences between them. In a broadcast text Lear had pointed out that Livingston, who ran unaffiliated in this race, previously had been a registered Republican. She said Livingston protested that Lear had pointed this out.Talking with friends, Lear recalled, “I said it’s not like I’m accusing her of being a pedophile. I accused her of being a Republican.” In a red state. “Where they are honored.” Lear, one of two Democrats on the 15-member board, was first elected to the body in 2016, before it became a partisan post, and opposed the move in 2020, including as a plaintiff in a lawsuit.She’s seen the board become more partisan in the years since, though the actual work is more sausage than headline worthy, in her view. She thought the body had moved a little more to the right this year, mainly in the primary as more moderate Republicans were bumped by more conservative challengers in a couple of districts. Livingston, who ran unaffiliated, has been somewhat of a lightning rod from leading efforts to ban sexually explicit books in the Park City School District in recent years and became frustrated with how long the process lasted. Lear, an attorney who specializes in education issues, said due process does take time, and she’s no fan of book bans, especially the one in place statewide now in which only three districts need impose such a ban and it applies across the state. Livingston welcomes the speed of implementation, but said she’s not big on book bans, either, other than for the sexually explicit texts under bans now.And besides, that’s not what her campaign was really about she said, disappointed at so much focus on that. She said she visited every school in District 6, which touches the Park City area but mainly lies in Salt Lake City, to better understand up close the districts and their issues, along with how she might help.Lear, already well known among the districts statewide through her work and service on the board, said she’s always there to help, but prefers to be invited and not risk intruding. The one-time high school English teacher, 27-year director of law and policy for the state Office of Education, and then attorney who focuses unsurprisingly on education issues has an adult lifetime of connection to the state school board and the issues it does resolve and to greater and lesser degrees over the years, influence.That work will continue with her lock on another four year term. The post Park City candidate finds insurmountable lead for state school board incumbent appeared first on Park Record.