December 20, 2005 > School Board to fill vacant seat Jan. 25

by Gary Leatherman

The Fremont Unified School District Board of Trustees decided at its Dec. 14 meeting to provisionally appoint a new member to complete the term of retiring member Guy Emanuele rather than call a special election. An election would cost the district around $300,000.



The board will follow an application and interview process to make the appointment. Applications are available on line at www.fremont.k12.ca.us. They also may be requested by phone at (510) 659-2542 or may be picked up at the front desk of the FUSD Education Center, 4210 Technology Drive. The deadline for applications is Jan. 13 at 4:30 p.m.



The legal qualifications to serve on the FUSD Board are as follows: a member must be 18 years old, a registered voter, a citizen of California and a resident of Fremont. The board also will consider other criteria to decide who is best qualified for the position, including the individual's previous involvement in community and school volunteer activities, knowledge of the community, management and other experience and expertise that would help the individual contribute to setting school district policy.



Board members considered restricting the provisional appointment to someone who does not intend to run for the seat when the current term expires. It had been suggested that an appointee might have an unfair advantage in subsequently running for election. The board decided not to set a restriction, but to ask the applicants if they intend to seek election in November 2006 and to consider their response as one criterion in determining who to appoint.



The board will distribute the names of all qualified applicants to the local media for publication as soon after the application deadline as possible. All applicants are expected to be interviewed unless the number of applications is too large. The board plans to interview applicants in a special open board meeting to be televised from the Fremont City Council Chambers on Public Access Channel 27 on Jan. 25.



Following the interviews, the board will cast a series of ballots until one candidate wins a majority. The new board member is scheduled to take his or her seat at the regular board meeting Feb. 8.