Longtime trustee named school board president

Judy Franco, the longest-serving current member of the Newport-Mesa Unified School District board of trustees, has been appointed as board president for the next year.

At the district’s annual organizational meeting last Tuesday, Franco’s fellow trustees named her as president, while appointing Martha Fluor as vice president and Dana Black as clerk.

Franco, who joined the Newport-Mesa board in 1980 and served as clerk over the last year, had been president four times previously.

As the leader of the board, she will have one vote along with the other trustees, but she will be in charge of running the meetings and approving proposed agenda items with Supt. Jeffrey Hubbard. Franco, who defeated three challengers in the November election, said she was proud to be at the helm again.

“As many mayors will tell you, it’s a ceremonial post,” she said. “I’m looking forward to being able to work with all of the six board members and the staff to continue the forward progress that we have had over the last several years.”

Franco follows former President David Brooks, who served over the last year. Serene Stokes, who lost the November election to new board member Karen Yelsey, was president the year before.

Brooks said that Franco’s experience would serve her well during a time of change in Newport-Mesa. Hubbard stepped in as superintendent in July, while Chuck Hinman recently took over as assistant superintendent of secondary education and Elizabeth Novak as assistant superintendent of human resources.

On Tuesday, the board swore in its three new members: Yelsey, Walt Davenport and Michael Collier.

“She’s really a proven leader,” Brooks said of Franco.

“We have a nearly all-new staff and she can work well with them — as can the others — but it’s one of those things where she’s won an election, she’s been clerk of the board, and to be president just seems like the next step,” Brooks added.

If Franco serves her latest four-year term, she will be Newport-Mesa’s most venerable trustee in history, breaking the record of 29 years set by Roderick MacMillian, who retired in 1994.

During her time in Newport-Mesa, Franco has served as president of the Orange County School Boards Assn. and holds a delegate seat on the California School Boards Assn.