Recently retired Beverly Hills High School Principal Carter Paysinger Wednesday filed to run for a seat on the Beverly Hills Unified School District Board of Education in the November election.
After it became likely he would not be retained as principal, Paysinger announced on Jan. 27 he would retire effective June 30, move to Beverly Hills and seek a seat on Board of Education.
Paysinger is the fourth person to file to run in the race for three seats, along with incumbent Noah Margo, former board member Mel Spitz and parent/property manager Isabel Hacker. School board President Brian David Goldberg has said he will run for re-election but has not filed.
A third incumbent, Lewis Hall, has not said if he will run for re-election.
The filing deadline is Aug. 7. If an incumbent does not file for re- election, the filing deadline will be extended to Aug. 12.
Paysinger graduated from Beverly Hills High School in 1974 and was a longtime teacher and coach, including being the school’s football coach from 1990-2008.
Paysinger became the school’s principal in 2010, the only black to be hold the position in the history of the school that opened in 1927. No black has been elected to office in Beverly Hills.
Paysinger filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against the district last July, alleging he was the target of a “malicious campaign of discrimination and retaliation” by the district because of his race. He signed a $685,000 settlement of the suit on June 26.
Paysinger is president-elect of the California Interscholastic Federation Southern Section, the governing body for high school sports in most of Southern California, other than the Los Angeles Unified School District and San Diego County.
Paysinger’s memoir “Where A Man Stands,” written with Steven Fenton, made The New York Times list of top 20-selling sports books for November.
