Results from the Palisades Charter High School board election show that Susan Frank won the parent seat and Carol Osborne and Jason Cutler secured the community seats. Julia O’Grady and incumbent Karen Perkins, running unopposed, were elected to represent the classified staff and teachers, respectively. The newly elected members will serve two-year terms on the 11-member board, which is composed of three community members, three parents, three teachers, one classified staff member and the executive director.   Frank replaces Darcy Stamler, while Osborne and Cutler will assume Vicky Francis and Rene Rodman’s seats, respectively. Stamler, Rodman and Francis all ran for re-election.   O’Grady fills classified staff member Torino Johnson’s seat, and Perkins reclaims her spot.   The school’s parents voted for the parent representative, while teachers and classified staff voted for their respective seats. Both faculty and parents chose one of the community representatives, and teachers selected the other community representative. Voters had from October 16 to October 30 to cast their ballot, and a committee of six stakeholders counted the votes on November 2.   Ballots were sent to one household for every student attending PaliHi, which has an enrollment of 2,752 students. Households with two children attending the school were sent two ballots.   Frank, who received 57 of the 131 votes cast by parents, hopes to help PaliHi through these tight economic times by using her 25 years of experience as a chartered financial analyst.   ’We need to keep the school financially strong,’ said Frank, who is now retired. She and her husband, Dan, have an 11th grade son at PaliHi and an eighth grade daughter at Paul Revere.   The Pacific Palisades resident, with a bachelor’s degree in political science from San Diego State University, said one of her main goals is to help PaliHi find a qualified principal. Interim Principal Marcia Haskin came out of retirement to replace Martin Griffin, who left in June, while the school searches for a permanent replacement.   Frank believes that to attract good candidates, all stakeholders need to reach a consensus on what qualities they want in a principal. ‘We should be targeting what we need,’ she said, noting that an executive search firm could help.   Frank, who is co-president of the Parent Advisory Council and has served as an officer on the Parent Teacher Student Association, also wants to improve communication with parents. For example, she thinks that a recap of the board meeting should be e-mailed to parents the day after the meeting.   O’Grady, who received 40 of the 41 votes cast by the classified staff (28 employees did not participate in the election), said she decided to run for the position because ‘I have been interested in school governance for many years.’   A UCLA graduate with a degree in fine arts, O’Grady has served on the Policy Committee for the past three years and as chair for two years. She has been on the Educational Programs Committee since 2005 and the Communications Committee since 2007.   ’I understand the various aspects of running the school,’ O’Grady said, noting that she has a strong grasp of the charter and bylaws.   As the part-time parent liaison for the school, she sends out communications to parents and answers their questions. She plans to translate these communication skills to the board.   ’Good communication is essential for good governance,’ said O’Grady, whose daughter, Kate Rosenbaum, graduated from PaliHi this spring and is attending Northwestern University. Her husband, Henry Rosenbaum, is a writer. Osborne, who won the teachers’ vote, thinks her background as a corporate lawyer for the past 20 years will be an asset to the board. She advises public and private companies on governance issues such as meeting procedures and board interactions.   She suggests that the board host town hall meetings to discuss controversial issues with stakeholders before voting on them.   ’Board meetings have rigid limitations on how long people can talk, and it’s important to have an informal dialogue,’ said Osborne, who grew up in Pacific Palisades and attended Harvard-Westlake. She earned her bachelor’s degree in history and French at Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota and attended law school at Georgetown University.   Osborne, who works for Holme, Roberts & Owen, also wants to help PaliHi with its fundraising strategy for capital projects. PaliHi is currently constructing the Maggie Gilbert Aquatic Center and has plans to build a visual and performing arts center.   As board chair of the Unitarian Universalist Community Church of Santa Monica for three years, Osborne led the church through the construction of a new school building and the buying and selling of property. Osborne lives in the Palisades with her husband, Chris, an economist, and daughter, Meghan, 13, who attends Paul Revere. She has two stepchildren Alex, 16, and Natasha, 18, who live in England.   Cutler, who received the majority of combined faculty and parent votes, did not answer e-mails from the Palisadian-Post. School administrators did not have his telephone number.   According to his candidate statement, he is a PaliHi alumnus and his brother is a PaliHi junior. Cutler wrote that one of his goals is to partner with local businesses for internships and part-time jobs, and ‘I would also like to see PaliHi work with local community colleges to offer more classes in order to get students a head start with college credits.’   Perkins, a Pacific Palisades resident with a 10th grader at PaliHi, received 81 votes of the 92 ballots returned from teachers (34 teachers did not vote). She teaches physiology and biology classes and has been on the PaliHi faculty for five years. She joined the board on June 9, following the resignation by social studies teacher Dave Suarez.
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