Costa Mesa : Education Board Seeks Applicants for Vacancy

The county Board of Education says it will seek applicants for a vacancy created by the death last month of veteran board member Frances Murphy.

Mrs. Murphy, 66, of Garden Grove died Feb. 13 while on a trip to West Germany. She had served on the board for 8 1/2 years and had been reelected to a third four-year term last June.

At its meeting Thursday in Costa Mesa, the four board members voted to appoint a replacement rather than call a special election, which would cost about $100,000.

Applicants must be residents of Trustee Area 2, which includes Garden Grove, Huntington Beach, Los Alamitos, Stanton, Westminster, Seal Beach and Cypress. The appointee will be named April 9 and will serve until the June, 1988, election.

The board, while little known to most voters, controls the $50-million yearly budget for the 700-employee county Department of Education.

The board has an advisory role, but no direct supervision, over the county Department of Education. Actual supervision rests with the elected county superintendent of schools, who for the past 21 years has been Robert Peterson.

The department provides administrative and support services for the county’s 28 school districts. The department also provides classroom services for handicapped students and juvenile offenders referred by the court system.

Each applicant should send a resume and a one-page, typed, double-spaced essay on his or her philosophy of education to President Elizabeth Parker, Orange County Board of Education, 200 Kalmus Drive, Costa Mesa, Calif. 92626. The deadline is March 23.