Pacheco district parents question why no school board elections in last seven years

According to election records on file at the Shasta County Office of Education, the Pacheco Union Elementary School District hasn't held a trustee election in seven years.

A group of parents with children in the district want to know why not.

Instead, all five trustees of the district's governing board have been appointed "in-lieu" of an election, a practice that Robin Beeson, executive secretary to Shasta County Superintendent of Schools Tom Armelino, said is not uncommon.

In the South County, however, having elections is the norm.

In November 2009, Anderson Union High School District, Cascade Union Elementary School District and Cottonwood Union School District all held trustee elections.

At the April 14 board meeting, Paige Meyer, president of the Pacheco Prairie Parent Teacher Group, voiced concerns that neither the Pacheco Board nor its superintendent, Steve Mitrovich, had announced or advertised last year that there were any openings on the district's board of trustees.

Such an omission, Meyer said, is a violation of the district board's own bylaws, quoting Board Bylaw No. 9221, which covers the recruiting of new board members.

According to the bylaw, "In order to draw Governing Board member candidates from the widest possible number of interested, active, well-informed citizens, the Superintendent or designee will publicize widely all public Board meetings, committee openings, and community-related school events and will encourage the participation of parents/guardians and members of the professional and business community in these activities."

District Superintendent Steve Mitrovich responded that the district had done what is "standard" for Shasta County schools — the district purchased a single legal notice in the Record Searchlight announcing the opening — and therefore did not violate the California Education Code.

Cathy Darling, Shasta County's Clerk and Elections official, does have an affidavit stating that the school district did its job by publicly announcing "in a newspaper of general circulation within the county" that three board seats would be open for candidates interested in running in the November 2009 elections.

After further discussion with Meyer, Mitrovich admitted during a public portion of the board meeting that he may have violated the bylaw by not advertising or announcing the three open board seats within the district itself.

However, in a later e-mail from Mitrovich to the Valley Post received July 22, Mitrovich appears to recant his earlier admission.

"The statement I made about the violation of BB 9221 was in error. I provide you with documentation for that today," Mitrovich wrote.

The documentation he provided was an affidavit from the Shasta County Elections Office that proves the three open board seats were advertised once in the Redding newspaper's legal section.

Contacted by phone, Brittney McCanny of the California School Board Association told the Valley Post she could not state whether the board had followed its own bylaws until she had heard both sides of the issue.

Barring any resignations, the next regular school board election should be held in 2011.