The San Marino Unified School District’s Board of Education could fill its fifth and final seat as early as Wednesday, June 8, according to Superintendent Linda de la Torre.
The board will review the applications that have been received for the position on Monday, June 6, and interview applicants during a special meeting on Wednesday, June 8. It’s possible that the position will be filled at that special meeting.
The opening on the school board appeared suddenly when then-President Nam Jack announced on Monday, May 16, that she was resigning. The district has until July 17 to name Jack’s successor or submit to a public election. De la Torre said on Tuesday that the district has received three applications to fill the seat vacated by Jack.
The board faced a similar challenge in June 2021 when attempting to replace former board members Corey Barberie and Julie Chan Lin — who had resigned within two weeks of one another in May. The eventual winners of those two seats — Jack and Michael Killackey — each emerged from a field of six candidates who had applied during separate searches.
C. Joseph Chang — who, at the time of Jack’s resignation, was clerk of the school board — has since assumed the duties of president, pursuant to current board bylaws. On Tuesday morning, Chang said that the board does not currently have a position description in its bylaws for the vice president position, which was previously occupied by Jane Chon.
“This is something we plan to work on when we have a full board going forward,” Chang said.
During its May 24 meeting, the board voted to close the superintendent search that was conducted by its consultant, the COSCA Group, without selecting a final candidate. Chang said the board will discuss the matter at a subsequent meeting in the coming weeks, and the board will update the community of any developments.
When asked by the Tribune how many candidates were presented to the board by COSCA and how many interviews resulted from that process, Chang said that the contract between the board and COSCA does not allow him to answer those questions.
Chang said the board will continue its discussion on the superintendent search during the closed session of the June 8 meeting.
