A.V. VOTERS OUST TWO INCUMBENT SCHOOL BOARD MEMBERS.

Byline: Karen Maeshiro Staff Writer

LANCASTER - Antelope Valley Union High School District trustees Cheryl Lundgren and Brett Nelson lost their bids for re-election, caught up in the flap involving fellow trustee Darrel Brown's district-financed travel with the district's spokeswoman, his girlfriend.

The high school district was the only one Tuesday in the Antelope Valley in which voters ousted all the incumbents.

``We were the board. It's our job to police each other, and we didn't. I think it's fair. The public spoke,'' Lundgren said Wednesday.

Nelson attributed his loss to press coverage of the travel controversy that attacked him and the district. He said he got ``more negative press than Osama bin Laden.''

``This campaign never once mentioned the candidates, their qualifications and past experience,'' Nelson said.

Winning in the high school district were James Lott, Keppel Union School District assistant superintendent and former Antelope Valley Fair board member; Calvin Robinson, a fourth-grade teacher at Cactus School in the Palmdale School District; and Al Beattie, the owner of a Midas Muffler shop and past Palmdale City Council candidate.

The third seat was formerly held by trustee Bill Olenick, who resigned in June for health reasons. Lundgren and Nelson were seeking their second terms.

At next week's meeting, the board members will consider a policy requiring them to vote in advance on business-related travel by trustees and administrators. The policy was proposed after questions arose about $12,000 in trips taken by Brown and Solcich since March 1999.

The district has launched three inquiries into the travel by Brown and Solcich and by Superintendent Robert Girolamo and his wife, who is a work experience coordinator at Palmdale High School, and into nepotism in the district.

In other school board elections, voters in the Palmdale School District re-elected incumbent Sheldon Epstein, principal at Mariposa School in the Lancaster School District; Shawny Barcelona, a day spa and beauty salon owner and wife of district spokesman Isaac Barcelona; and Sandy Corrales, co-owner of a Palmdale advertising firm.

Longtime board members Fred Thompson and Velma Trosin did not run for re-election.

In the Lancaster School District, voters returned to office the three incumbents: Richard White, Keith Giles and Greg Tepe.

In the Westside Union School District, voters returned to office Christine LeBeau, the lone incumbent running for re-election. They also voted in Marty Meeden, a third-grade teacher at Buena Vista School in the Palmdale School District; and James Brink, a seventh-grade teacher at Amargosa Creek Middle School in the Lancaster School District.

In the Southern Kern Unified School District, where the three incumbents chose not to run for office again, voters elected Mario Gutierrez, a mechanic who owns an automotive shop; Ralph Nelson, an Edwards Air Force Base engineer and test consultant; and Robert Vincelette Jr., chief of customer support at Edwards.

The Southern Kern election was held amid turmoil in the district, which has seen the superintendent's contract bought out and the resignations of two board members, Pat Hopping and Charles King.

Hopping's and King's seats will be filled in a special election in March.