It appears newly appointed Sacramento City Unified trustee Jay Hansen will not have his seat challenged through a petition calling for a special election.
Before Hansen's selection, the district's five bargaining groups and an outside coalition urged the school board to reconsider their decision to appoint someone to fill resigning board member Ellyn Bell's seat.
Board members, however, said they did not want the district to have to pay up to $274,000 for a special election, particularly in a time of budget cuts.
Annette Deglow of the coalition Citizens to Elect School Boards by Areas said she was ready to challenge any appointment to the board because it did not allow the voters of Area 1 to select who would represent them for the remaining two years of Bell's term.
Area 1 includes Land Park, downtown, midtown and Curtis Park.
Deglow, however, said Wednesday that she has decided not to initiate the petition.
"There is no way to do it without it being personal," said Deglow, one of the original petitioners of measures that created trustee area elections in Sacramento City Unified. "The only thing I wanted was for the community to select their candidate," she said.
Deglow said her issue is that she could not challenge the district's decision to appoint a candidate before trustees made a selection.
That, Deglow said, makes it seem like she opposes Hansen, when, in fact, she opposes the appointment process.
The State Education Code allows for 30 days to challenge a trustee appointment. In Sacramento City Unified, a successful petition would need 2,500 signatures by Jan. 19 turned in to the Sacramento County Office of Education.
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