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Second Vacancy - School Board Appointment Made
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A new member for the board of trustees has been appointed by the governing board of the Riverbank Unified School District, the selection coming at the meeting held on Tuesday, Feb. 11.

Three candidates had applied for the vacant seat and all three were interviewed at the meeting on Tuesday.

Connie Gilbert was selected to fill the vacancy that was created after Steve Walker submitted his resignation at the end of December 2013.

There were three board members on hand for the interview: Elizabeth Meza, President, Suzanne Dean, member, and Susan Taylor, Clerk and they all voted ‘yes’ for the appointment of Gilbert.

Board member John Mitchell was not present at the meeting on Tuesday and has not been to a meeting since November 2013.

In fact, Mitchell submitted his letter of resignation from the board a couple weeks ago to the County Superintendent of Schools. According to RUSD Superintendent, Dr. Daryl Camp there is a board bylaw that states the board members must notify the County Superintendent if resigning.

Mitchell’s term runs through 2015 and he is resigning effective Feb. 28.

Due to his resignation the board was presented with another decision to make on how to fill the new vacancy, either by appointment or special election. As they did for Walker, the board members decided to go through the appointment process for the board vacancy created by Mitchell’s resignation.

They will have 60 days from the date of Mitchell’s resignation to make a provisional appointment for the vacant seat.

The district has several upcoming goals and priorities in the near future and officials said they should be running with a full school board by April at the latest.

“My job obviously is to work with the whole community including the five-member board no matter who is elected or selected by the community,” stated Camp. “So that is what I am going to do. I can only hope and think that everybody that is on the board is there because they want to serve the community and serve the kids.”