POJOAQUE — Candidates who campaigned for change, including expanding sex-education and reproductive-health services in the schools, came out on top in the election for two seats on the Pojoaque Valley School Board on Tuesday, according to unofficial results.

Sharon Dogruel, a former high-school science teacher, unseated incumbent Lilliemae Ortiz, a 12-year board member and former state education budget analyst, by a final, unofficial total of 522 to 457.

Santa Fe County planner Jon Paul Romero outpolled parent activist and LANL chemist Claudine Armenta, 582 to 382.

Both Dogruel and Romero had argued that reported increases in pregnancy rates and sexual activity among high-school students required the board to expand its sex-ed and health services, including allowing the health center to distribute condoms and offer reproductive-health counseling.

Dogruel and Romero also campaigned on the promise of returning the school district to what Romero termed "the elite status it once had."

"It's a new beginning," Dogruel said. "The community spoke for change." She said the district and the board had lost its achievement "momentum and sense of urgency."

Dogruel said the board failed to efficiently use available resources to provide opportunities for students. "Pojoaque needs to be better, Pojoaque needs to be great."

Both Dogruel and Romero had cited the district's continuing failure to meet federal and state achievement standards.

"We used to be looked at as a premier district; we want to restore that," Dogruel said.

Romero again cited community concern over what he said was the board's failure to act aggressively in response to reports of increased pregnancies and sexual activity among students.

"We can't be having (students) having children at that age," Romero said, suggesting that parenthood at such a young age often bars students from future opportunities.

In defeat, Ortiz, 57, who was first elected in 1997, said she respected the voice of the people. "I always enjoyed being a school board member. I really loved working with the kids."

She said she had always been active in the Pojoaque community and would continue to be so.

Armenta, 42, did not return repeated phone calls for comment.

Dogruel, 65, is a chemist at the Los Alamos National Laboratory, and operates her own education consulting firm. Romero, 40, chairs the Santa Fe County Planning Commission and owns a civil engineering firm.

A total of 964 votes were cast in the Romero-Armenta race, and 979 votes in the Ortiz-Dogruel race. The Santa Fe County elections office said there were 6,345 eligible voters in the school district. That translates into a turnout of about 15.5 percent, which is considered about normal for Pojoaque school board elections, if a bit on the high side.

Voting was reported steady early in the day, with lines still forming near closing time as well.

At one point, a voter said, election officials brought in additional voting stations at the district's one polling site, the multipurpose room at the middle school.

POJOAQUE VOTE

At-large seat:

Sharon Dogruel, 522 votes, (53 percent)

Lilliemae Ortiz (i), 457 votes, (47 percent)

At-large seat:

Jon Paul Romero, 582 votes (60 percent)

Claudine Armenta, 382 votes (40 percent)