A recently appointed school board member in West Sacramento could be ousted from her seat after a petition was submitted Friday.
If 345 signatures on the petition are verified, the Washington Unified School District will be forced to hold a special election, which could cost the district around $100,000.
"This is a two year appointment," said Elizabeth Bagdazian, whose appointment has been called into question. "Our schools, our kids can't afford this."
Bagdazian was appointed Sept. 5 following the resignation of trustee Sandra Vargas.
After the appointment, Mayor Christopher Cabaldon alleged that the school district broke the law to keep the seat vacated by Vargas off the November ballot. Cabaldon said it was well known Vargas had moved out of the district and that her resignation was pending for many months.
He said her resignation arrived right after the deadline that would have put her seat on the November ballot.
"That magically gave the board the ability to appoint the seat," Cabaldon said recently. "The board is required by law to vacate the seat and take appropriate action. That would have been to put it on the November ballot."
For more on this story, read The Sacramento Bee on Saturday.
Get caught up on issues facing the Washington Unified district by reading this story HERE.
Loretta Kalb started her reporting career at The Sacramento Union, moved to KOVR-13 as a television reporter, editor and producer, headed to The Associated Press in San Francisco and eventually returned to Sacramento and joined The Sacramento Bee. Throughout her career, she has covered the state Legislature, courts, local government and, now, education. She is a Chico native and an Elk Grove resident.
Diana Lambert began her journalism career as a proofreader at the Lodi News-Sentinel. She is now a senior writer at The Sacramento Bee covering K-12 education and California State University, Sacramento. Previously she was The Bee’s Elk Grove bureau chief. Lambert was raised in a military family and lived at bases around the globe. She attended four high schools, graduating from Tokay High in Lodi and then Sacramento State University. She lives in Elk Grove.
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