Two former school district board members, a retired school administrator, a charter school board president and four other local parents have thrown their names in the hat for the vacant seat on the Morgan Hill Unified School District’s Board of Education.
The six current trustees will try to reach a majority decision on one candidate to fill the vacancy left by the departure of former board member Amy Porter-Jensen, who resigned in late October with one year remaining on her term.
A special public meeting is scheduled for 6 p.m. Dec. 8 at district headquarters at 15600 Concord Circle, where several rounds of interviews will take place until a finalist is selected from the bunch.
The eight candidates are:
—Adam Escoto, a retired assistant superintendent from the Ravenswood School District in Palo Alto who has done some mentoring contract work with MHUSD;
—Angelica Diaz, the Director at Community Health Partnership, a nonprofit association of nine community health centers in Santa Clara and San Mateo counties;
—Brian Sullivan, currently serving as President of the Board of Directors for the Charter School of Morgan Hill;
—Danielle Davenport, a former high technology company executive who has also been a member of more than nine corporate and nonprofit boards. As of Monday afternoon, Davenport had withdrawn her name from consideration, according to Superintendent Steve Betando;
—Julie Zintsmaster, a former MHUSD school board member and retired executive secretary to the superintendent;
—Mary Anne Groen, Chief of Staff for the Office of the Vice Mayor for the City of San Jose and veteran violinist for the South Valley Community Symphony;
—Peter Mandel, a software product manager for IBM and former MHUSD board member; and
—Tara Bevington, Executive Director of Second Start Learning Disabilities Programs, which operates a state-certified nonpublic school for students with disabilities.
Candidates will be whittled down through three rounds of interviews with each board member casting three votes in round one, two votes in round two and one vote in round three. If one candidate does not receive a majority vote in the final round, up to five tie-breaker rounds, each followed by a board vote, will continue with the remaining candidates.
If the board still can’t decide, then “in accordance (with) the MHUSD Board Bylaw 9220, the process to select the provisional trustee may be a coin flip,” according to the staff written document titled “Selecting a provisional trustee appointee.” However, if the board objects to that method and the 60-day window for making an appointment passes Dec. 29, then the district must call for a special election.
