This SLO County school board has a new trustee. Here’s why she’s unlike the others
The Paso Robles school board has added a new trustee, and she brings a unique outlook on the district that no other member can offer.
In a special meeting on Monday afternoon, the Paso Robles Joint Unified School District Board of Education voted to appoint a student trustee to the panel.
The position is a non-voting role to be held by the current president of the Paso Robles High School Associated Student Body (ASB), beginning at the next regularly-scheduled meeting on Dec. 14.
Malia Gaviola, Paso High senior and ASB president, said it is a role she’s looking forward to and takes with great responsibility.
“It’s an opportunity for student voices to be heard very publicly and in a way that the board can’t really ignore,” Gaviola said.
The addition of the student trustee to the board came after another Paso High senior, Cameron LeClair, researched the possibility of instating a local bill to mandate the student member as part of a project for a class.
Having a student trustee on the school board was important to him, he said.
“We’ve had such incredible community outreach from the students in the last couple years over major decisions in our district,” he told board members during Monday’s meeting. “And I firmly believe that having more student participation in this sort of conversation is very vital to the future of our district.”
During his class research, LeClair found that there was a California law that allowed students to petition for a student trustee to be instated on the district’s board. The petition had to acquire signatures from at least 10% of the high school’s student body — which would have been about 213 students.
LeClair’s petition received more than 500 signatures after just a week of gathering them, he said.
Therefore, the petition was added to the board’s special meeting on Monday, and board members unanimously voted to approve the student trustee position.
The board members expressed their support for adding the position and the student advocacy it required.
“I am proud to be a part of this, I am thankful for the actions that you’re taking because I think that with the representation ... (there) will be somebody up here who helps us moderate the tone; helps set the tone, not only for us on the chair of the board, but I think for the public at large,” said Trustee Nathan Williams during the meeting. “We are here to serve you, and the fact that you want to be a part of that is so important. I’m excited.”
Board also discusses new trustee applicants
During Monday’s special board meeting, trustees discussed the eligibility of the 13 applications they’d received for the seat open after Jim Reed’s resignation in October.
Although they said two of the applicants did not completely meet the formal requirements to apply, the board decided to interview all 13 candidates.
The candidates are:
- Thomas Blaine Baker
- James Cogan
- Kenneth E. Enney
- Seth N. Fidalgo
- Robert Foster
- Adelita Hiteshew
- Kim Lachance
- Cristina Mathers
- Claire Ida McClure
- Christopher J. Prieto
- Rex Thornhill
- Willis Frank Triggs
- Caitlin J. Vierra
Interviews will take place on Dec. 7 as a special board meeting open to the public.
This story was originally published November 29, 2021 at 6:21 PM.
