School board advances three applicants to interviews for at-large vacancy

The ad hoc meeting of the Norwalk-La Mirada Unified School Board met to choose applicants to advance to the interview stage for the at-large vacancy left by Dr. Bedari. Chair (Speaker 4) said the goal was to select the top three candidates—possibly four if votes were close—and confirmed the public interviews will take place at the March 23 board meeting.

After a roll-call series of votes on nine applicants, Committee member (Speaker 3) reported their count of the top three as Christopher Staples, Estela Chavez Prado and Mark Copeland. Chair (Speaker 4) then announced, "the board has selected to advance to interviews are mister Christopher Staples, mister Mark Copeland, and, Estela Chavez Prado." The board congratulated the three applicants and said they look forward to the interview process.

Board members conducted the selections through a randomized ordering of applicants followed by individual 'yes' votes; each member had up to three 'yes' votes to use. There were no public comments submitted for this ad hoc meeting, and the Chair closed the meeting after the selections and a unanimous procedural adjournment vote.