CSBA installs new officers and directors

Paul H. Chatman, board president of Ocean View School District in Oxnard, became president of the California School Boards Association at the close of CSBA’s Annual Education Conference and Trade Show in San Diego last month.

Chatman succeeds Dr. Kathy Kinley, a board member of Chaffey Joint Union High School District in Ontario, who remains active in the association as immediate past president. Chatman has served on the Ocean View board since 1989 and was in the Delegate Assembly for five years before becoming a member of CSBA’s Board of Directors in 2001; he was elected the association’s vice president in 2005.

“Those who know me know that my agenda is that all children be exposed to the same rigorous curriculum and have the same opportunity to compete in a global economy,” Chatman said. “CSBA is well positioned to move the public education agenda and set the pace for the rest of the country.”

The Delegate Assembly confirmed Paula Campbell as the association’s president-elect for 2008. Campbell served on the Board of Directors since 2003 and was elected vice president in 2006. She has been a Nevada City School District board member for 15 years.

“We have a unique opportunity this coming year,” Campbell said. “Our state superintendent of public instruction, Jack O’Connell, has made closing the achievement gap his centerpiece. And with the work our staff, delegates and Board of Directors have done to synthesize numerous studies and events, we have an opportunity to say, ‘This is what we need to do; this is what it takes; let’s figure out how to get it done.’”

Frank Pugh, CSBA director from Region 3 since 1999, was elected the association’s new vice president. He has been a member of the Santa Rosa City Schools board since 1990. Pugh’s agenda includes working to acquire greater funding for schools and to inform communities through CSBA’s “Learn More California” project and other efforts.

“I believe that the public schools of tomorrow depend upon the leadership of CSBA today. The well-being of this state depends upon fully funding a pathway for every child’s success. Our students deserve no less than our best efforts,” Pugh said.

Directors-at-large

Re-elected this year were Sara Wilkins, director-at-large, county, from the Madera County Office of Education, and Shelly Yarbrough, director-at-large, American Indian, from Val Verde Unified School District. Newly elected as director-at-large, black, is Emma Turner from La Mesa-Spring Valley School District.

New directors

Jack Bedell, from the Orange County Office of Education, joins CSBA’s Board of Directors in his capacity as president of the California County Boards of Education. Other new directors are Bob Berkowitz, from Del Norte County Unified School District in Region 1; Shana Levine, from Dixon Unified School District in Region 3; and Chris Ungar, from San Luis Coastal Unified School District in Region 9. Marlene Canter, from Los Angeles Unified School District (Region 21), joined the Board in July.