Turlock Unified seeks board applicants from west and south of town

Two vacancies on the Turlock Unified School District board will be filled by appointment. The unanimous votes to choose the process were among the last for Deborah Martin, who resigned effective Wednesday.

Martin, who is moving to Oregon this week with her family, represented Area 2, a western strip of the district roughly bordered by Fulkerth Road on the north and West Linwood Avenue on the south. A section of it also winds into central Turlock to include Donelly Park and Emanuel Medical Center.

The appointee, who must live in that trustee area, will begin almost as soon as appointed and will serve two years, until the next election.

No one filed to run for the Area 7 post, which covers the southwest portion of the district, bounded on the north by Harding Road. Area 7 also swings into a section of downtown Turlock, then angles into Merced County to include sections of rural Hilmar.

“Nobody submitted their papers,” board President Frank Lima said Wednesday. Lima was among three candidates who filed candidacy papers for the Turlock Unified board, one candidate each in Areas 1, 3 and 5.

Odd-numbered areas were up for election this year, finishing the district’s two-election shift from an at-large board to trustees chosen by area to comply with California Voting Rights Act provisions intended to make it easier for minority candidates to run.

With no contested seats, there will be no election this year for Turlock Unified. Trustees will appoint someone from Area 7 to serve the full four-year term, with the appointment official the first week of December, Lima said.

Applicants for both seats have until 5 p.m. Sept. 18 to file a candidate’s information form and supporting documents at Superintendent Dana Trevethan’s office. Turlock board seats have no stipend or health benefits.

In other business Tuesday, the board got an update on the expansion of its popular dual language immersion program. The district expects to decide by December how it will accommodate the program, which has outgrown its long-standing home at Osborn school.

Moving the Osborn sixth grade to Dutcher Middle School, where grades 7 and 8 in the program are housed, and opening a smaller program at nearby Wakefield Elementary are options being studied.

For this year, Osborn has another portable restroom and an expanded outdoor eating area to manage overcrowding at the west Turlock campus.

This story was originally published September 2, 2015 at 1:47 PM with the headline "Turlock Unified seeks board applicants from west and south of town."