Two of the four members who sit on the Gavilan Joint Community College District Board of Trustees and whose districts run through San Benito County will not seek re-election in November.
Trustees Lois Bandeira-Locci, whose Trustee Area 7 covers much of rural San Benito County, and Kent Child, whose Trustee Area 5 seat covers the city of Hollister, do not plan to run for another term. The Gavilan district covers a 2,700-square-mile area from South San Jose through most of San Benito County.
“I will not run in 2018, for I feel I have done what I came to do,” said Bandeira-Locci. “My experience on the board has been very positive, for the trustees work exceedingly well as a team. Even when discussions become energetic, we seem to allow the intensity to have its time, then we calmly make the decisions the public can trust.”
Bandeira-Locci highlighted three key accomplishments during her four years on the board: the move to district voting, the placement of Kathleen Rose as superintendent/president, and the execution of the last phase of Measure E construction.
“These are actions directly attributed to trustees and our role, yet the college has taken major strides forward by the relentless efforts of faculty and staff,” she said, citing examples such as designing new career programs, providing intense student support and expanding science lab sections in San Benito County.
Child, who was first appointed to his Gavilan seat in 2005 and then won election in 2006, is a former member of the Gavilan College administration and faculty, beginning in 1968. He retired as dean of Liberal Arts and Sciences in 2002 after a long career at Gavilan College. A resident of San Benito County, Child received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from San Jose State University.
“It was exactly 50 years ago that I signed my contract to become an art professor for the college. Fifty years seems like an appropriate span to close out what has been a deeply satisfying career of service to our area’s students and communities,” Child said. “I had the pleasure to see the college grow into the fine institution it has become. … It is now time for new, fresh and different energy and commitment embodied through someone else.”
The candidate filing period opened July 16 and runs through Aug. 10. Incumbents failing to file a Declaration of Candidacy by the Aug. 10 deadline are then prohibited from filing for the office during the extension period; and the nomination period for that office is then extended until 5pm on Aug. 15.
subhed: Perry, Glines to seek new terms
Hoping to carry on in their public service as Gavilan trustees are Walt Glines (Trustee Area 3, west Morgan Hill down to south Gilroy) and Laura Perry (Trustee Area 1 in Morgan Hill) who will both pursue new four-year terms in the Nov. 6 election.
Perry, a 1986 Gavilan alumna who has sat on the board since 1992, noted that this will be her last term if she is re-elected.
“I have completely and thoroughly dedicated myself to helping Gavilan grow and to meet the needs of our growing community,” Perry said. “Gavilan is really coming into its own.To me, it feels like a huge jump. It’s really fun to be part of the growth. For so many years on the board, I’ve been part of the cuts and layoffs and financial turmoil.”
Perry earned a bachelor’s degree from San Jose State University and law degree from Santa Clara University and runs her own law practice in Morgan Hill, where she’s lived for nearly 40 years.
“Everybody on campus has helped to put us in a great financial situation to move forward,” Perry said. “My goal has always been that when people are asked where they went to college, they don’t whisper Gavilan but shout it.”
Glines, who ran unopposed in 2014, is a longtime South County resident and Gilroy High School class of 1966 alumnus who worked for more than 40 years at local newspapers—including the Morgan Hill Times and Gilroy Dispatch—in various editorial positions.
