A United Way of Wine Country official has been appointed to a vacant Sonoma County Board of Education seat.
Andrew Leonard, an education program officer with United Way, will represent Area 3, central Sonoma County.
One of three candidates, he replaces Khaalid Muttaqi. The other candidates were David Rosas, who works for Keysight Technologies and was previously a board member with the Roseland School District, and Karyn Pulley, an education consultant and former member of the Cotati-Rohnert Park Unified School District board.
“I’m excited to have Andrew on the board,” said County Superintendent of Schools Steve Herrington. “He will bring valuable new perspective and experience.”
He added: We were lucky to have an incredible pool of applicants to choose from.”
The education board has varied responsibilities including: approving the SCOE annual budget ($65.5 million); acting as liaisons for school districts to groups such as 10,000 Degrees and Mentor Me, which aim to boost student success; and conducting hearings for inter-district transfers and expulsion appeals hearings.
At the same meeting, Ginca Cuclis was elected board president and Peter Kostas was named vice-president. Cuclis represents Area 1, the southeast section of the county, while Kostas represents Area 2, the southeast section of the county.