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Jennifer Youstra, who was elected to the Portola Valley School District Board of Trustees in November 2015, resigned from her post on Sept. 8, effective immediately. Her term, which was her first, was to expire in December 2019.
District Superintendent Eric Hartwig, who announced Ms. Youstra’s resignation in a Sept. 11 emailed statement, told the Almanac he is recommending that the vacant seat be filled by board appointment. The board will vote on the recommendation at its Sept. 27 meeting; the item is on the consent calendar, he said.
If the board approves the recommended process, the appointment would be made at its Oct. 25 meeting, Mr. Hartwig said.
Mr. Hartwig said the board has two options for filling the vacancy: call for a special election, or appoint a new member within 60 days of Ms. Youstra’s resignation. He said he’s recommending the appointment option because a special election would be costly, and it “could be confusing to the electorate given the regularly scheduled election” on Nov. 7.
Ms. Youstra has had a child attending Portola Valley district schools for 11 years, but her last child left the district in June, according to Mr. Hartwig. He said that in resigning, Ms. Youstra noted that she wanted to create an opportunity for a parent with children in the district to occupy her seat on the board.
Ms. Youstra could not be reached for comment for this story. Her two-sentence resignation letter gave no reason for her decision to resign her post.
If the appointment process is approved, Ms. Youstra’s seat will be filled just before the November election of three board members to three-year terms. Karen Tate, Caitha Ambler and Tim McAdam will wind up their terms this year.
Four candidates are vying for those three seats: incumbent Karen Tate; Karyn Bechtel, a community volunteer from Woodside; Jeff Klugman, a retired software executive; and Michael Maffia, an investor and developer.
Because of the timing of the proposed board appointment and the upcoming election, Mr. Hartwig said, there’s a possibility that the three non-incumbent candidates who have already filed to run for a seat in November could apply to be appointed to Ms. Youstra’s vacated seat.
If one of those candidates were appointed to the board in October, and then won a contested seat in November, the candidate would give up the appointive seat to fill the elective three-year term and someone else would be appointed to fill the now-vacant seat, he explained. The appointive term will expire in December 2019.
In order to comply with a new state law that requires elections for most board and council seats to take place in even years, the three board positions filled in November will be three-year terms. Eventually, all five board positions will return to four-year terms.
If the board approves the appointment process on Sept. 27, the district will post announcements detailing how to apply for the seat in the Almanac, on its website, and in school and district newsletters, Mr. Hartwig said. Applicants for the seat will be interviewed by the board at a public meeting.
Reporter Barbara Wood contributed to this story.
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Of course, school board members are free to resign at any time, and it’s not possible to fully predict one’s life circumstances for four years in the future, but school board members shouldn’t resign simply because they no longer have children in District schools as the comment from Ms. Youstra implies is her reason. It was fully predictable to Ms. Youstra at the time she ran for the board that her children would age out of the schools before the end of her term. It is not the practice in neighboring districts for school board members to resign just because they don’t have children in the schools.
Life can be complicated… I myself had to unexpectedly step back from a commitment this year because things changed.
I vote we not go down the path of passing judgment on something we don’t know about.
This is a big loss to the district. The Youstras have been enormous supporters of the PV school system for many, many years, and in so many ways. They are wonderful people, and have quietly gone above and beyond on numerous occasions in service to our community.
All of us wish Jennifer the best. She’s certainly entitled to keep her reasons to herself.
It seems that all comments make sense. However, I think it could also be considered that a resignation by someone ELECTED has some obligation to their constituents for a reasonable reason. The reason given does give others the right to question why they did not consider that their child would term out before running, and, I agree that there is am obligation to fulfill their commitment. Such a curt answer leaves me to wonder coupled with such an abrupt resignation. Oh well…
There is a pattern of racketeering on that board that is worthy of a RICO indictment for denying the people the right to vote. Trustees take an oath to serve, not to serve at their own leisure until their own children are out of the district. Trustees have stepped down at least 5 times in the recent past. Then school board decides not to call for a special election to fill the seat because it costs too much money. However, they do get to appoint a replacement, denying the voters a fair vetting and voting process. Anne Campbell began this tradition when she resigned so she could be appointed Superintendent of San Mateo County when her predecessor stepped down before her term was up. (Sheriff Munks, also from Portola Valley, did the exact same thing in the Sheriff’s department.) Some statistics need to be compiled on how often this happens, how many (and which) trustees have resigned early, and how many serve by appointment vs. how many serve by election. The oversight of that board is negligible. I guess it is the Portola Valley Way.
“The oversight of that board is neglibible”.. You do know that the oversight is the people of Portola Valley”, correct? Unless you are some all-knowing person, you have no idea what others are going through and their reasons for making decisions. Here’s an idea for you.. Volunteer, run for office, get involved. The trustees represent the voters. Since you apparently don’t feel represented, get off your a@# and do something about it.