Orange Unified School District board members chose two new colleagues Thursday night, filling vacancies left after a recent recall removed two trustees from office.
Sara Pelly and Stephen Glass were both appointed on a 4-0 margin in a special board meeting. OUSD school board member John Ortega was absent from the meeting.
Pelly, who will represent trustee area four, and Glass, area seven, are replacing former board members Madison Miner and Rick Ledesma. Voters removed them from office in a recall election on the March 5 ballot.
[Read: Two Orange Unified School District Trustees Booted From Office]
Each candidate had five minutes to make an opening statement before the board’s discussion and vote.
Pelly, a retired teacher, spent the last seven years of her career as principal of Fletcher Academy in Orange.
Board members said Pelly’s recent experience in Orange Unified set her above the other candidates.
“Somebody with recent feet on the ground in Orange Unified — who knows how to allocate resources on a campus, who knows and sees those needs and has that passion to do so — is somebody that I really think would benefit our district as a whole,” board member Kris Erickson said during the meeting.
Board President Ana Page said she’s seen Pelly inspire children and families in her own life.
“Mrs. Pelly was my daughter’s first principal, [her] first experience in elementary school,” Page said. “I have seen, not just from my own children, but from all children that she has influenced. Students always remember how their teacher or their principal made them feel.”
Glass is also a former educator in Orange Unified. He taught at Orange High School in the early 2000s. Now he’s a professor at California State University, Long Beach, and he’s been a principal or assistant principal in five different Southern California school districts.
“When I had my 10 boxes, you [Glass] check nine of the 10,” Erickson said. “If I had to write a resume for a board member, it’d probably be your resume because it fit everything.”
In total, there were seven candidates for trustee area four and nine candidates for area seven.
Pelly and Glass will hold office until the next regularly scheduled election for district board members.
In March’s recall election, 53.4% of voters decided to recall Miner and 53.8% of voters decided to recall Ledesma, according to voting results from the Orange County Registrar of Voters that was certified on March 26.
Recall efforts kicked off against the two in January 2023 after Superintendent Gunn Marie Hansen and Assistant Superintendent Cathleen Corella were abruptly fired while they were out of the country.
[Read: Did Orange Unified School Officials Improperly Replace Their Superintendent?]
Recall organizers also pointed to Miner and Ledesma’s support of a parental notification policy for transgender students. Both board members also supported efforts to temporarily suspend their digital library over concerns about inappropriate books and banning the flying of the LGBTQ+ flag on district flagpoles.
Ledesma served as a school board member from 1993 to 1997 and then again from 2001 until the recall. Miner was elected in 2022 to the school board for the first time.
During the meeting, Glass shared his vision to unite the community “in pursuit of educational excellence.”
“Together with your support and with your collaboration, I’m confident we can create an education system that’s a beacon of hope and achievement,” he told the board.
Pelly emphasized she will be able to hit the ground running due to her knowledge of Orange Unified.
“I have extensive experience and knowledge of this district and the functions of its many departments that would allow me to make informed decisions as a school board trustee,” Pelly said during the meeting. “This is especially critical for an appointed decision because I will be ready to go on day one.”
Angelina Hicks is a Voice of OC Tracy Wood Reporting Fellow. Contact her at ahicks@voiceofoc.org or on Twitter @angelinahicks13.
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