Gateway Will Seek One More Round Of Applicants For Ongoing Board Vacancy
During a four-and-a-half-hour public meeting Tuesday, Gateway’s four remaining Board members failed to come to agreement on any of the seven candidates who applied for the Board’s vacant seat. They agreed to list the position one more time, in a final attempt to avoid an expensive special election.
Editor’s note: Welcome to our News in Brief series. By producing some stories that are shorter and less in-depth we hope to be able to increase access to important information. We’d love your feedback. Email us: editor@shastascout.org
This story was reported with the help of Shasta Scout student-journalist-for-a-day Isabella Coughran.
March 24, 2023, 12:11 pm: We have updated the story to correct information related to a potential election process.
The Board of Gateway Unified School District has faced a challenging last four months. First came three new Board members, then the termination of the District Superintendent, followed by a series of alleged Brown Act violations and failures to follow Board policies that have resulted in multiple legal warnings and actions. Along the way, the Board lost its fifth member and President, Cherrill Clifford, who resigned on February 6.
On March 21, Board members made a second attempt to fill Clifford’s vacant seat after failing to agree on any of the six candidates who applied for the position earlier this month.
They struck out again this time, voting 2-2 on each of the seven second-round applicants. After their final vote on candidates, several of the approximately fifty people attending the meeting, stormed out.
Much of the Board’s discussion Tuesday night was led by Acting Board President Lindsi Haynes. After voting in unison with her husband, Elias Haynes, on every Board candidate, she pushed for her fellow Board members to consider holding a final round of candidate interviews during the last of the District’s sixty allowable days to fill the seat.
Long-term Board incumbents Phil Lewis and Dale Wallace at first opposed that idea, saying that the Board’s two attempts had already proven that the group could not reach consensus. In response, Lindsi Haynes pointed out that she and Elias Haynes had made progress by voting for more than a single candidate.
While the Haynes voted only for Jesse Lane at the last series of interviews, this time they supported both lane Lane and fellow repeat applicant Joseph Fairfield as well as new Board applicant, Rebecca Walker.
Meanwhile Lewis and Wallace voted down the Haynes preferred three candidates but supported appointing any of the other four: including repeat applicants Dean Goekler and David Thompson and new candidates Charity Tatlow and Jill Marshall.
Left at an impasse, the Board first discussed, then voted, to release one more call for Board applicants and hold a final round of interviews which will occur on April 3, five days before their sixty-day deadline to fill the seat.
If they fail, Shasta County Office of Education spokesperson Kerri Schuette told Shasta Scout today, the next Board member will be chosen by voters during the November election at the District’s expense.
During their March 21 meeting the Board also voted against extending the District’s contract with California Adventure Camps, an expanded learning service provider run by Shasta County Supervisor Kevin Crye.
The vote means the District will continue to utilize California Adventure Camps’ services for spring break programming but will not extend the contract to provide summer school programming this June.
The decision leaves the District still flush with $500,000 in unspent state Expanded Learning Opportunity grant funding to spend on enrichment activities for ages K-6 before June 30, 2023.
The District must hold a total of thirty full days of ELO programming outside of normal school hours and before June 30, 2023 to fulfill the grant requirements. They are slated to receive another $1.4 million in similar funds next year.
Applications to fill Gateway’s vacant Board seat are due no later than March 31, 2023. You must be a resident of the District’s Area 2 (City of Shasta Lake), not work for the Gateway Unified School District, and not hold another public office that would represent a conflict of interest. You can apply on the District’s website or call 530-245-7900 to pick up an application in person. Applications submitted by email should be sent to dboontjer@gwusd.org. All applications will be screened for eligibility. Interviews will be held at the District Office Board room on April 3 at 5 pm.
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