It’s not every election that a Beverly Hills school board race makes the front page of the Wall Street Journal or gets a deep-dive from LA Material, but this is one of those years. Many observers of the 2026 BHUSD campaign season have found it exhausting to sift through the muck in search of substance, or to even figure out who took the race in its current direction. To aid voters, we at BHUSD Watch have identified the top four things worth keeping in mind at the ballot box this year.

What happens when local leaders stop trying to win arguments and instead aim to destroy lives? You get the current BHUSD leadership’s approach to dealing with their electoral opposition. Three case studies in abuse from this campaign cycle tell the story of what is at stake on November 3rd.

In 2022, Judith Manouchehri had sixteen endorsements from Beverly Hills community leaders supporting her first Board of Education run. Three weeks out from the 2026 election, not a single one of these sixteen former supporters has re-endorsed her, and at least five of them are openly endorsing her opponents in an effort to oust her from the Board. The toxic campaign Manouchehri and her running mate David Cienfuegos are now waging to cling to power despite this exodus of support is proof enough that neither deserve your vote on November 3rd.

On February 17, 2026, a child sex predator was allowed to lecture hundreds of Beverly Hills High School students on how to be a man. This disquieting event betrays a more fundamental failure of BHUSD’s governing authorities, who have made it their mission to police against “woke ideology” in classrooms while allowing far-right politics to trickle in from the Board on down. Thiswas not a lapse in judgment, but a culmination of effort, and it needs to be stopped.