In a development that sent shock waves through the community, Nam Jack announced last Monday that she was immediately resigning from the San Marino Unified School District’s Board of Education. At the time of her resignation, she was the board’s president.
“In a surprise move, San Marino Unified School District Board President Nam Jack last week tendered her resignation effective May 16,” said the notification that circulated on the SMUSD’s email platform. “The board of education will be discussing the vacancy at their next regularly scheduled meeting on May 24.”
On Tuesday, Jack declined to comment.
C. Joseph Chang — who, at the time of Jack’s resignation, was clerk of the school board — has assumed the duties of president, pursuant to current board bylaws. Superintendent Linda de la Torre confirmed the transition, saying the process was reviewed by attorneys for the school district.
On Monday, De la Torre said the May 24 meeting — which appears on the calendar as a “regular” meeting — includes an agenda item relating to the process of selecting a fifth board member.
“The board will discuss the process and timeline for filling the vacant seat following [Jack’s resignation] on May 16, 2022,” says agenda item No. 15, the last entry on the docket.
De la Torre said that, by law, the district has until July 17 to name Jack’s successor or submit to a public election.
The board also has a closed session meeting to determine the status of the search for a new superintendent for the SMUSD. The board had been targeting May 24 as the date a new superintendent will be announced, but there is no agenda item calling for that action.
Jack spent nine years on the school board between 2009 and 2018 and was appointed to the board last June to replace Julie Chan Lin, who quit the board in May 2021. Hers was the second sudden departure of a member in less than two weeks, following Corey Barberie, who was later replaced by Michael Killackey.
This past December, Jack was elected by her fellow board members to serve her third term as president of the board, having previously presided over the panel in 2013 and 2016.
In November, the San Marino Unified School District will hold an election where four board seats will be on the ballot, a situation that was necessitated by the resignations from the board by Lin and Barberie.
Jack and her husband, Mike, reside in San Marino. The couple has two children, both of whom graduated from San Marino High School. Their son, Drew, graduated from Occidental College in 2018, and daughter, Devon, received her diploma in 2020 from Brown University, Jack’s alma mater.
