At the beginning of the Dec. 15 School Board meeting,
immediately after being handed a recall notice by a member of
Community Alliance for Responsible Education (CARE), Trustee George
Panos was unanimously elected board president.
At the beginning of the Dec. 15 School Board meeting, immediately after being handed a recall notice by a member of Community Alliance for Responsible Education (CARE), Trustee George Panos was unanimously elected board president.
Trustee Shelle Thomas was elected vice president, and Trustee Mike Hickey was re-elected to serve as board representative to the Santa Clara County Committee on School District Organization.
Before the vote for Panos, Thomas said she had a few questions to ask.
“I asked this of Tom (Kinoshita, former board president) a year ago: what are your goals, what are your objectives, how will you react to the minority opinion, how are you going to meld minority and majority opinion?” she said.
Thomas, Hickey and Trustee Amina Khemici, all in their first terms after the November 2002 election, are frequently on the losing side of 4-3 board votes.
Panos said he sees differences in opinion as valuable to the board.
“Historically, I have been inclusive (of the minority opinion),” he said. “I may not vote as everyone will do at times … My goals are our goals and what comes from our community as well. Every opinion is wanted … Different opinions bring the best discourse to our meetings. This district has class and will always have class, and you can make a commitment to communicate with all board members and with the community.”
After the vote, Thomas was nominated for vice president by Del Foster with Trustee Amina Khemici seconding the nomination.
Panos drew a sprinkling of laughter from trustees and the audience as he immediately said he had a question for Thomas.
“I want to mirror or mimic what you had stated about melding minority and majority opinions into one,” he said.
Thomas said her major concerns are communication and accountability.
“We need to act for the wishes of the community,” she said. “We need to adopt goals and success indicators that evaluate academic performance. We need to be open-minded. We need to be accessible. We need to listen. We need to have a vision. We need to do our homework. We need to be honest in our decision-making and informed on the issues. We need to set direction, set structure. We need to be accountable to our students, the people who work for us and our community.”
Thomas was also elected unanimously. Trustee Tom Kinoshita is the past Board President. Trustees Jan Masuda and Del Foster have also served as president during their terms.
