Winters Joint Unified School District announced that Trustee Rob Warren resigned from the school board on Dec. 14.
Warren has served as the Winters JUSD Area 4 Trustee for the past 10 years. He most previous held the position of Board Clerk, and prior to that served as the Board of Trustees President.
When asked about his decision to resign, Warren said, “Transparency, sometimes to a fault.”
He said the decision came following the Winters JUSD Special School Board meeting held on Thursday, Dec. 10. According to Warren, he didn’t feel the public was notified about it in a timely manner. With four important items on the agenda, including the approval of a new position and a 96-page budget report, he felt more of the public , incoming Trustees and teacher association would have been in attendance.
“I’ve always prided myself on being transparent and open with the district,” Warren told the Express.
Ralph T. Anderson, former Area 1 Trustee, said Warren would advocated for students.
“Rob was always aware of the do’s and don’ts of the Ed code, keeping the board on its proper ways of doing things. He had a very watchful eye on our spending, always trying for the district to save money and get the best bang for our buck, and he always was constantly pressing for our kids’ test scores to improve and helped us get through some tough times we had in the English immersion issues in the past,” Anderson said.
Next steps
Superintendent Diana Jiménez told the Express that Trustees will be meeting to discuss the next steps and the timeline for filling the vacancy. She had not returned a comment to a follow up timeline inquiry following the Thursday, Dec. 17 Winters JUSD school board meeting.
Trustees are elected members and Warren’s current term was set to expire in 2022.
According to Winters JUSD policy, the district has 60 days to fill the seat from the day of resignation, putting their deadline at Feb. 13, 2021. Trustees must choose to either appoint a Trustee or call for a special election.
Winters JUSD recently went through the process of filling a Trustee seat mid-term in January 2020 after Michael Olivas resigned from his Area 3 Trustee seat after serving for nine years.
Earlier this year, former Superintendent Todd Cutler had told the Express that if the board approves to appoint versus to call for a special election, then a sub-committee will be formed and applications will be made available online and at the Winters JUSD office.
Requirements to apply for a school board seat are individuals who are 18 years of age or older and live in the specific Trustee Area zone (See map).
On Monday Winters JUSD posted an agenda for a special school board meeting scheduled for Tuesday, Jan. 5 at 6 p.m. to take action on filling the vacated Trustee seat.
The next Winters JUSD regular school board meeting is scheduled for Thursday, Jan. 21 at 6 p.m. The agenda and packet can be accessed online at https://wintersjusd.communitybydiligent.com/portal/.
*Updated to reflect special school board meeting and change of first regular school board meeting date.
