Five community members have requested the application for the
vacant seat on the Morgan Hill Unified School Board: Bob Benevento,
Kirsten Carr, Dennis Delisle, Maria-Elena Jarson and Miguel
Montes.
Morgan Hill – Five community members have requested the application for the vacant seat on the Morgan Hill Unified School Board: Bob Benevento, Kirsten Carr, Dennis Delisle, Maria-Elena Jarson and Miguel Montes.
Interested community members, who must live within the MHUSD boundaries and be at least 18 years old, can pick up the application at the school district office, 15600 Concord Circle or they can be downloaded from www.mhu.k12.ca.us.
No one has turned in an application yet, according to the district office.
Applications are due by 5 p.m. Jan. 7 and the school board will convene a special meeting Jan. 12 to appoint its seventh meeting during a public meeting at 6 p.m. where candidates will be interviewed publicly and the board will make a decision that evening.
No part of the process may be discussed behind closed doors.
The seventh seat is empty because former Trustee Julia Hover-Smoot won the Nov. 3 election for the Santa Clara County Board of Education race, surprising the community and even herself since she dropped out of the race in September though her name remained on the ballot.
Hover-Smoot accepted the position and resigned from the MHUSD board Nov. 30.
The board has until Jan. 29 to appoint someone, according to the California Education Code. The position is a two-year term until the next rotation of MHUSD school board elections in 2012.
At the school board’s Dec. 14 meeting, new board President Peter Mandel led the discussion of making the process open to the public rather than the board appoint someone directly before interviews or with a special election that could cost up to $60,000. Â
