By Brittany Hanson/Garden Grove Journal
The vacancy on the Garden Grove Unified School District Board of Education will be filled by appointment from a pool of candidates from the 2010 and 2008 elections, the board decided Tuesday night.
Board member KimOanh Nguyen-Lam has resigned from the board to take a job in Washington, D.C. Previous candidates wishing to be considered to take her place need to fill out and submit an application by 5 p.m. on Wednesday (June 15).
This process was approved on a 3-1 vote, after lengthy discussion at Tuesday night’s Garden Grove Unified School District board meeting.
Board member Linda Reed made the motion for the appointment pool of all the candidates from the last two elections, member Bob Harden seconded it and member George West voted in favor of it.
Board President Lan Nguyen voted against it, instead favoring opening the candidate pool to the previous four and even five elections.
The 2010 eligible candidates are Shaun Curtis, Bao Nguyen and Bob Tucker. The 2008 eligible candidates are John Nguyen and Linda Zamora.
Lan Nguyen’s original idea for filling the vacated position was to hold an open appointment where anyone from the public could become an applicant. That process would have required an interview process, which would have been left up to the presently-governing board members.
His argument was that it would be more inclusive of potentially qualified candidates that maybe had not had the opportunity to run in the election.
George West had originally been in favor of the same process as Nguyen. However, during the course of the discussion West agreed to reduce the applicant pool to previous candidates and had suggested that the year range be extended to three years.
The position filled would last for 15 months until the next general election. The decision must be made by Aug. 1.
