Kathleen Ritchie, president of the San Lorenzo Valley Unified School District Board of Trustees, has announced her resignation from the board, effective Dec. 7.
The 11-year veteran trustee’s departure mid-way through her third-four year term representing the Felton district will mark the third trustee resignation of 2016 for the five-member board.
This continues a decade-long pattern of appointing rather than electing school board trustees for the sprawling district that extends the length of Highway 9, and its surrounding mountain communities.
The board will appoint a successor to complete her term in early 2017, and interested applicants have until Jan.11 to apply for the position. Residents must live in Area 2, rural Boulder Creek.
In San Lorenzo Valley schools, it works like this: If you want to serve on the school board, you wait until a resignation creates a vacancy. You are interviewed by the existing board, and if you are appointed, you can be all but assured of serving as long as you like with no opposition. Then you return the favor by waiting until after the candidate filing deadline to resign, allowing for the appointment of your successor.
Four of the current five school board trustees first joined the board as an appointee.
The consistent pattern of board members resigning after candidate filing deadlines has been matched by a pattern of uncontested elections.
When only one candidate files for elected office, the candidate is automatically elected with no vote – “appointed in lieu of an election” – with no opportunity for voters to even write in another candidate.
There has been only one contested election among the 17 trustee ballot opportunities since 2002, when challengers defeated two incumbents, according to the Santa Cruz County Board of Elections.
That was a turbulent time in the district, when a long-time superintendent resigned, a financial crisis loomed as enrollments declined, the school board closed two of four elementary schools, prompting a lawsuit, and voters turned out incumbents.
The district’s Board of Trustees oversees four main schools with 2,750 students. The San Lorenzo school district has the largest number of registered voters – 17,747 – of any city, school, water or fire district in the San Lorenzo Valley or Scotts Valley.
Its trustees live in and represent five “areas” that represent the five communities served by the district: Boulder Creek, Brookdale, Ben Lomond, Felton and Zayante. When voters get a chance to vote, they vote for all contest positions, regardless of where they live.
George Wylie, who has served as board president since he was elected trustee 10 years ago (without opposition) said the district is in the midst of an era of success and stability. He views the lack of opposition candidates as an endorsement of the work of the district staff and board leadership.
Wylie was elected with no opposition, and had no opposition in successive election years in 2010 and 2014. He said he intends to resign before the end his term in 2018, but after the filing deadline, to give his fellow trustees a chance to hand-pick his successor.
“Voters have the opportunity to get signatures on a petition to force an election,” he said. By avoiding elections, the district saves about $50,000 each election cycle, he said.
Ritchie joined the board as an appointee in 2005, then was elected with no opposition in 2006, 2010 and 2014, for Area 2, rural Boulder Creek.
She has four children and has participated as a volunteer in the SLV schools for many organizations such as the Boulder Creek Parent Club, BCE Site Council, BCE Gate Committee, Art Masterpiece Coordinator, Nature Academy Parent Council, SLVHS Site Council, Cougar Club, as well as volunteering in the classroom for 14 years.
“Ms. Ritchie has been an avid supporter of the visual and performing arts, and the gifted and talented education programs for years,” said Superintendent Dr. Laurie Bruton. “She has been an important influence in shaping education in San Lorenzo Valley for a decade and she will be greatly missed.
Laura Dolson was appointed in 2010 to replace Susan Weber who resigned two years after she was re-elected to a second four-term representing Area 3, Ben Lomond. Dolson was re-elected to her second four-year term this year with no opposition.
In Area 5, Zayante, Gail Levine was first appointed in June to fill a spot vacated by 10-year veteran Lea Dakota, but then was forced to resign less than a month later when she discovered she in fact lived in Area 4, Felton. Jacqui Rice was appointed in August to that Felton board vacancy created when Dakota resigned in May.
Then Levine, former superintendent of the Bonny Doon elementary school district, was again appointed to the board in October, after 10-year veteran Kip Tellez resigned after the filing deadline.
Tellez had been “appointed in lieu of election” to three consecutive terms for Area 4, Felton.
Dakota had won the district’s last contested trustee election in Zayante, in 2006.
