Oakley to appoint one school trustee, discuss four other openings next week

With the clock ticking on the need to appoint a replacement trustee, Oakley Union Elementary School District trustees decided on Thursday to do just that to fill the seat of a member who resigned in January ahead of four others last week.

They also agreed to meet next week to discuss how to fill the other seats that were vacated following fallout from an embarrassing hot-mic moment, which drew national attention last week for this small Delta city.

Trustee Larry Polk, first elected in 2007, resigned his Area 2 seat on Jan. 4, and the former Oakley trustees had agreed to appoint a replacement instead of holding an election. Board members were about to interview and appoint a candidate on Feb. 17 when they were caught off-guard making disparaging remarks about parents unaware their meeting had gone live.

The new temporary board, appointed last week by the Contra Costa County school board president following the entire board’s resignation, was then tasked with filling all five seats, an event so rare that no one could recall it ever happening before in the region.

But before they could deal with the new vacancies, the district’s legal counsel urged the new board at Thursday’s special meeting to decide whether to finish the application process or call for an election, noting it has only 60 days to make an appointment after a resignation.

“It must be done by March 8,” attorney David Soldani said, suggesting it be done at the next board meeting on March 3.

“If we fail, the county superintendent of schools then has to call an election to fill that seat,” he said.

Residents who commented favored appointments.

“I am strongly urging that an application and appointment process is used to avoid a special election,” parent Anissa Williams said. “We all want what is best for our students and staff, and this has derailed the process. Please consider that Oakley has had enough negative attention and we all just want to get back to work on a safe transition to school.”

Sherry Seat agreed.“Philosophically, most tend to agree that elections are superior to appointments,” she wrote. “However, in this particular unique situation, due to the expense and the time for an election process, I believe the community should support CCBOE (Contra Costa County Board of Education) in developing an appointment process for all trustee seats.”

If the board chose to call an election, the earliest it could be held would be Aug. 31 at a cost of between $200,000 and $300,000, or it could be included on the Nov. 2 ballot for a lesser cost, the school district’s legal counsel said.

“With the Nov. 2 election, the benefit is it costs less and voter turnout is higher,” Soldani noted.

If a trustee is elected for the Area 2 seat vacated by Polk, that person would serve the remainder of the term, which ends in November 2024. But if new trustee is appointed, he would serve only until November 2022 when the next school board election is set.

If the board chose to place the trustee decision on the ballot, Area 2 “would remain unrepresented at a time that’s pretty precarious for most school districts,” Soldani said, noting it would be months before a new trustee would be seated.

Trustee Consuleo Lara asked who would pay for the costs.

“The district would pay,” the counsel said.

Trustee Annette Lewis asked if it would be appropriate to continue the appointment process that the previous board had begun. The chosen applicant, Alaina Villeda, had declined to accept the appointment following the controversial last meeting.

Soldani agreed it would but recommended extending the application deadline.

“We need to get the word out so we have a high degree of participation,” he said.

The board unanimously agreed to fill the first set by appointment and have a larger discussion next week to address the additional vacant positions.

“Hopefully, the residents and constituents within Oakley see that our urgency to get this resolved is a priority to us and everyone,” said trustee Mike Maxwell, who was elected president of the temporary board earlier in the meeting.

“We will take matters very seriously but we will allow sufficient time to discuss, to get input from the community, in hopefully a number of fashions.”

The next meeting will be held virtually at 5 p.m. March 3 during which time candidates for Area 2 will be interviewed and one person will be selected to fill that seat.

Those interested in applying, can do so at https://www.ouesd.k12.ca.us/board-of-trustees. The deadline is March 2.