Trustees in the Sacramento City Unified School District are scheduled to make an appointment Thursday for Trustee Area 1, a seat held by resigning board member Ellyn Bell.
An appointed candidate would serve out the two years remaining on Bell's term. Bell said she plans to move to San Francisco next month for her job. Her last day as a trustee is Dec. 23.
If an appointment is not made during the meeting, the Sacramento County Office of Education will order a special election at the school district's cost, as required by state Education Code. The county Elections Department has estimated a special election will cost between $137,000 and $274,000.
The school district may end up holding a special election regardless of whether an appointment is made.
An outside coalition said it plans to hold a recall petition if someone is appointed to Bell's seat, which represents Land Park, downtown, midtown and Curtis Park. The Sacramento County Office of Education said nearly 2,500 signatures would be required to remove an appointed trustee and hold a special election.
Annette Deglow, one of the original petitioners of measures that created trustee area elections in Sacramento City Unified, said the petition to force a special election is "ready to go."
Deglow is a member of the coalition Citizens to Elect School Boards by Areas, which joined the district's five bargaining groups in urging trustees to allow voters in Area 1 to decide who represents them.
Washington Unified in West Sacramento recently went through a similar process. Petitioners gathered 345 signatures to force a special election after trustees appointed a board member to fill a vacated seat. The special election is scheduled for March 5.
Candidates for the Sacramento City Unified seat are Gwynnae Byrd, Jay Hansen, Bina Lefkovitz, Anna Molander, David Ross and Kathryn Tobias.
Thursday's open session begins at 6:30 at Serna Center, 5735 47th Avenue, Sacramento.
To read the applications of each candidate, click HERE.
To watch a video of the candidates being interviewed by trustees, click 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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