BEVERLY HILLS, Calif.—Before security escorted her out of a school-board meeting, parent Jackie Kruger—clad in a leopard-print jacket and wide-brimmed hat—warned the board’s president that she would sue.

“You got to do what you got to do, baby,” the president, Judy Manouchehri, shot back.

Welcome to the Beverly Hills Unified School District, home to one of the nastiest local races of the year, complete with flying insults, dueling restraining-order petitions and a yard-sign whodunit involving a white Tesla with a ski rack.

The women—both attorneys and mothers of three—will meet again Nov. 3, when Kruger tries to unseat Manouchehri. Kruger, 47 years old, accuses her 46-year-old rival of hurting schools in one of the world’s most star-studded cities and fostering a climate of fear.

“When you’re at rock bottom, there’s only one place to go,” Kruger said, eyes blazing, as she munched on grapes at home last week.

So much for swimmin’ pools and movie stars. Yet the ruckus amid Rodeo Drive isn’t isolated. Similar vitriol is shaking school boards and city halls nationwide as bread-and-butter local issues give way to debates tinged by national and even global politics.

All politics is local, as late House speaker Tip O’Neill quipped, but towns are also tangling over topics like Israel, the Iran war and President Trump. A Brookings Institution poll released in June found nearly a third of students are in districts where board members said culture-war conflicts had undermined their ability to govern.

Democrats Kruger and her ally Kim Lifschitz hope to topple what they call a conservative 3-2 school-board majority. Two seats are on the ballot, and could flip the majority. Critics see another candidate, David Cienfuegos, as Manouchehri’s ally, though both dispute that.

Cienfuegos and Manouchehri classify themselves as nonpartisan, but have been endorsed by a conservative influencer whose posts label Lifschitz as “antifa” and Kruger a pink-wigged “poledancer.”Manouchehri’s supporters say she and her allies are victims of an online smear campaign by parents who dislike a reorganization she led to cut costs and rebuild declining schools. She said test scores are up.

“There are a lot of parents who support Judy, love Judy, but are afraid to speak up,” said Ellie Kadz, a marketing executive and mother of three.

This city of manicured lawns has long been prized for its high-ranking schools. It has also leaned Democratic, like the rest of Los Angeles County, until the Trump era and Covid-19 shutdowns divided it. Trump flipped Beverly Hills in 2024.

After Trump won that November, students in MAGA hats and waving flags rallied at Beverly Hills High School.

A teacher, who is Black, sued the district, alleging a pattern of racial discrimination at the school. The district denies the charges in the pending case.

That same election, voters seated Russell Stuart, endorsed by the local Republican Party, and Sigalie Sabag, recommended by the West Los Angeles Republican Assembly. Manouchehri was then vice president. The trio pushed through a reorganization and the departure of some top officials, critics said.

Manouchehri said she isn’t political and works with all board members, noting many votes are unanimous.

Stuart, a 50-year-old gun dealer, posted “BHUSDoge” on social media, a nod to the federal DOGE cost-cutting drive, then took it down after complaints.

At a March 2025 meeting, Kruger approached the dais to serve Stuart and Sabag with notices of intent to recall them. (The effort turned out to be premature, given California’s rules against early-term recalls.) Another fracas erupted in August 2025 when the board voted 3-2 to display Israeli flags in schools for a month annually, as part of an antisemitism resolution. Beverly Hills is heavily Jewish, and the board is entirely so, but many residents argued public schools shouldn’t display another country’s flag, and worried it would favor one group over another.

The superintendent nixed the plan on safety grounds. Manouchehri said the flag was only meant for events and education, not for a flagpole. “That was mischaracterized,” she said.

The board later adopted a policy to fly only the U.S., California, city, school-district and school flags, a move critics called retaliatory because it effectively ended flying the rainbow flag during Pride month.

At one meeting, Daniel Lifschitz, a lawyer and husband of the current candidate, accused the board of flouting its bylaws in picking a vice president. “Do your job or I’ll see you in court,” Lifschitz, dressed in a suit, said during public comments.

Unmoved, Stuart rebuked critics for not appreciating improvements since he took office. Then, responding to a remark from Lifschitz in the audience, Stuart said, “I can’t believe you’re a friggin’ lawyer.”Lifschitz went on to sue over the bylaw controversy; the case is pending.

Kruger and Manouchehri clashed again at the meeting where security walked Kruger out. Kruger had insisted on reading aloud sexual allegations against a conservative influencer students had invited to speak to a Jewish club. Manouchehri objected that the remarks were out of turn for public comment.

“This is nonagendized, Ms. Kruger,” the superintendent scolded. She kept speaking. “Ms. Kruger, this is nonagendized.”Kruger decided the only way to change the board was to join it. Kim Lifschitz, 39, a paralegal and stay-at-home mom with a special-needs son, jumped in, too.

When Cienfuegos decided to run, he sought advice from two board members including Manouchehri. A father of three, Cienfuegos has been a parent representative at an elementary school, where he relayed some families’ concerns about a temporary display of Maya Angelou’s memoir, “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings,” which depicts her childhood sexual abuse. It was pulled.

“People took offense with this book being placed out for kids,” said Cienfuegos, opening the book to passages marked in yellow highlighter over a salad at the Beverly Wilshire hotel.

Beverly Hills police have taken reports of stolen “Judy” and “David” yard signs. Cienfuegos posted videos showing a young man in a white Tesla with a ski rack taking them, and appeared—to some—to link the driver to Kruger’s son. “As for the name on the registration, you might find it when you open your school board ballot,” he posted.

A livid Kruger obtained a temporary restraining order against Cienfuegos. He sought one against her son, but a judge denied it. She said her son was falsely accused and has been threatened by another student. “He’s such a bad attorney,” Kruger said of Cienfuegos.

Cienfuegos said the restraining order has since been largely lifted and a “no contact order” remains, which “prevents Kruger and I from coming closer than 10 feet while campaigning.”

“It is all very unfortunate this race has become what it is,” he said via text. “I had no animosity or political agenda…and I am always fair. I don’t think many people can say the same about Kim and Jackie.”Judith Chan, a music teacher, said she was canvassing for Kruger and Lifschitz recently when Manouchehri confronted her from a car. “She yelled out, ‘Why do you tell people that the teachers endorse candidates when you know for a fact that they did not?’” recalled Chan, who said she walked away.

Manouchehri said she just happened to bump into Chan while picking up her daughter. “I’m not aware of any yelling,” she said at a hotel coffee shop.

Donna Tryfman, a Democratic friend of Manouchehri, thinks she has gotten a bad rap. “The lies being told about her,” she said, “hurts her and is hurtful to the students.”