Former teacher/counselor applies
Two express interest in filling vacancy on PAISD school board
BY DAN PARKER SOUTH JETTY REPORTER

CHUCK BORDERS

Two people have filed letters expressing interest in filling an open spot on the Port Aransas Independent School District Board of Trustees.

Former trustee Chuck Borders and Nancy Vaughn, a former counselor and teacher at PAISD, filed letters with PAISD administrative offices on Monday, July 9. No one else had filed a letter as of press time on Tuesday, July 10.

Place 4 on the board became vacant when Bob Smith announced on June 21 that he was resigning. Smith said he was moving away from Port Aransas.

Vaughn, 61, retired in 2006 after working for 25 years at PAISD. She worked at all three of the district's campuses, serving as a teacher and counselor.

Vaughn said she applied for the trustee position "because of my longstanding involvement with the school district. I care very deeply about it. counselor applies

"The schools are very important in this community," Vaughn said. "(The school district) has been important to me in raising my own two children. I have a great deal of loyalty to it and want to serve it in any way I can."

Borders was an incumbent defeated by challenger Rita Reed in the May elections. After Smith left, Borders said he intended to seek the Place 4 spot.

NANCY VAUGHN

"I feel very strongly about our school district and its direction, and I want to continue to be a part of it," said Borders, a property management company owner.

People who want to apply for appointment to Place 4 should submit resumes and written statements on their reasons for wanting to serve. The deadline for turning in resumes and statements to PAISD administrative offices is today - Thursday, July 12. A school board meeting has been scheduled for 5:30 p.m. today so trustees can vote on whom to appoint.

By law, the appointee to Place 4 can serve only until May next year, when a city election will be held to fill the spot for the two years left on the three-year term to which Smith was elected. The appointee may run for the spot, but so could others from the community.

Candidates for school board legally must be U.S. citizens who have lived in Texas for at least a year and within the school district for at least six months. A candidate must be a resident of the school district but doesn't have to be a property owner.

Candidates must be at least 18 years old. Trustees are not paid for their service.