The Menlo Park City School District board voted 4-0 at an Aug. 29 meeting to appoint someone to fill a seat left vacant by Caroline Lucas.

The board has until Sept. 30 to fill the seat; otherwise, an election will automatically be triggered, according to the district. The board will interview candidates, discuss them and appoint someone at a public meeting, said public information officer Parke Treadway in an email.

California law states that the board could either call an election for the nearest established election date that's more than 130 days away (April 2020) or appoint a member of the public to serve the remainder of Lucas' term, which ends in November 2020, according to a district staff report. If the board called an election for April 2020, whoever won the seat would only serve until the November 2020 election, according to the staff report.

Board members Stacey Jones and Sherwin Chen will serve on a subcommittee to determine the process and timeline for the appointment, Treadway said.

Lucas joined the board in 2016. She resigned from her post on Aug. 1 to take a part-time Spanish teaching position at Hillview Middle School. California law prohibits school district employees from simultaneously serving on their district's board.

Before joining the district as a teacher, she most recently taught Spanish and English language development in the neighboring Las Lomitas Elementary School District for six years.

Application packets will be available beginning at noon on Tuesday, Sept. 3, at the school district office, 181 Encinal Ave. in Atherton. Applications are due back at the district office at 4 p.m. on Sept. 16.

The district will hold a candidate information night at 7 p.m. on Sept. 9 in the district office boardroom. Attendance is not a requirement to apply for appointment.

The school board will interview candidates at a special public meeting at 6 p.m. on Sept. 23 in the district office boardroom.

For more information, contact info@mpcsd.org or stop by the district office.

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