The Yosemite Community College District (YCCD) Board of Trustees will be interviewing a total of five applicants for the appointment of the vacant Trustee Area 4 seat. The interviews will take place during a Special Board Meeting of the YCCD Board of Trustees at 1 p.m. Feb. 16. The vacancy became available when former Area 4 Trustee, Anne DeMartini, who served for a total of 19 years, resigned from her position on Jan. 3, 2021.

The applicants are: Erica Ayala, Vanessa Cardoso, Samia Merza-Fillpot, Luis Molina and Jenny Nicolau.

The appointed candidate would represent Area 4, which comprises the western portion of Stanislaus County (including the cities of Ceres, Newman and Patterson, a portion of the cities of Ceres and Modesto, and the communities of Crows Landing, Grayson, and Westley), a small eastern portion of Santa Clara County, and northwestern portion of Merced County (including the city of Gustine and the communities of Hilmar, Santa Nella, and Stevinson).

The appointed candidate will be sworn in as a provisional appointment at the Feb. 16 Special Board Meeting. Unless a petition is filed in the Stanislaus County Office of Education within 30 days of the provisional appointment containing a sufficient number of signatures, the provisional appointment shall become effective.

Members of the public are encouraged to view the meeting via livestream on the YCCD YouTube channel or in real-time via Zoom. The YCCD Board of Trustees wants every aspect of the process to fill the trustee vacancy seat to be as public, as open, and as transparent as possible. Prior to the Board deliberating, members of the public will be given an opportunity to provide public comments.

Public comments may be submitted in advance via email at BoardPublicComments@yosemite.edu by 12 p.m. on the day of the board meeting or given in real-time at the appointed time during the meeting.