Two weeks ago, the Hollister School District appointed an individual to its board of trustees to fill a vacancy. One of the four candidates applying for the position ran for school board in the 2014 election and although she did not win, she did very well. With her application, this candidate provided multiple letters of reference from community groups. Someone gave an eloquent speech on her behalf. There were several members of the public, parents, present at the meeting with signs supporting the candidate.
At its meeting, one of the board members requested that they discuss the pluses and minuses of the applicants before voting on who they were going to appoint. Unfortunately, he was ignored, just as were all the members of the public present supporting Brianna Rodriquez-Tavares. Without any discussion whatsoever among the four members of the board, they appointed someone else, who had just recently registered to vote. He had no letters of reference, no one speaking on his behalf, and no public support. He certainly had not demonstrated interest in Hollister schools by running in an election or even attending any school board meetings.
The candidate with the public support and has a vested interest with children in the school district, Brianna Rodriguez-Tavares, should have been appointed. Three of the four board members were elected or reelected in November 2014 and received 21%, 17%, and 16% of the vote, respectively. Brianna Rodriguez-Tavares, coming in at 12%, was the obvious appointment to fill a vacancy at this time. Per the Brown Act, the public has a right to hear the deliberations that lead to a school board taking action on any matter. If the Hollister School District Board of Trustees chose not to deliberate on such an important action, then they should not have the ability to take away the public’s right to elect their leaders.
Some of the parents, including me, who actually care about the Hollister School District and making sure kids get good educations in it, are not going to stand for this. We have begun the process of requesting a special election to fill the vacancy, as education code provides, that will be delivered to the county superintendent of schools to initiate the election.
I hope your newspaper and members of the community will join us and allow the people to vote. As the largest school district in San Benito County, it needs to be governed by properly elected board members.
Marie Catinella is a Hollister resident.
