Clegg takes on national role 

Dr. Kerry Clegg, Immediate Past President of the California School Boards Association, was elected to serve a three-year term on the Board of Directors of the National School Boards Association at the NSBA Delegate Assembly meeting in Chicago on April 7.

As a Director of the Pacific Region, Clegg will represent and explain NSBA’s programs, governance decisions and mission and goals to Federation Members, such as CSBA, and the general public.

The NSBA Pacific Region encompasses Alaska, Arizona, California, Guam, Hawaii, Idaho, Nevada, Oregon, Utah and Washington. In his speech to NSBA Delegates, Clegg said that the nation finds itself at a “crossroads of education,” with many students having less than a basic knowledge of science at a time when the country does not have enough scientists or engineers to keep pace in a global economy. Concerned that public education has “lost the richness of its curriculum,” Clegg said that now is the time to decide whether the U.S. will have the world’s premier education system or whether it will have to import scientists and export jobs.

Clegg has been a member of the Sulphur Springs Union Elementary School District Board in Los Angeles County for more than 15 years.

“Kerry’s service as CSBA President in 2005 and his educational background, experience and passion for the education of our children are strengths he will call upon as an NSBA Director,” noted CSBA President Luan B. Rivera.

Clegg succeeds Juanita Haugen, who served as NSBA Director for the Pacific Region for eight years. As an NSBA Director, Clegg will continue to serve on the CSBA Board of Directors after his term as Immediate Past President ends in December.

In other NSBA news, CSBA Director Shelly Yarbrough was elected Pacific Regional Director of the American Indian/Alaska Native School Board Caucus, a new position for the national association. One of her first tasks is to organize a powwow in San Francisco and strengthen representation for American Indian students at the national level.