Sinai was voted in unanimously by the four sitting board members from a pool of 10 candidates. Sinai will fill the seat vacated by former board president Leah Wilson, who stepped down in March after being appointed court executive officer for the Alameda County Superior Court. Wilson resigned citing concerns about a conflict of interest.

Current board president Karen Hemphill said that despite a strong applicant pool, Sinai had qualities that showed the board she was the most suitable person for the job.

“I felt that the Board needed someone who was already familiar with the District and was involved in public education and Julie met all of these attributes,” Hemphill said in an email.  “She has been a long-time public school activist, used to work for the District and in her current work at the university, it’s all about partnerships and collaboration.”

Before working at UC Berkeley, Sinai was also chief of staff to Berkeley Mayor Tom Bates. Sinai said she hopes to apply her previous community and university experience to the school district and help the board with its current challenges, which include a new superintendent, increased efforts to improve academic achievement and heated negotiations with teachers’ unions.

“My future plans are to become familiar with the issues that the board has to tackle and look how to move our equity work forward,” Sinai said. “I will also help with looking at the physical status of a student district and do whatever I can do to reach an agreement with the unions.”

Michelle Moskowitz, director of advocacy and institutional relations at UC Berkeley, works with Sinai and congratulated her appointment, saying she believes Sinai will exceed expectations on the board.

“I think Julie will be an amazing asset to the board, as she has many years of experience working for the city of Berkeley,” Moskowitz said. “They could not have made a better choice. All of her colleagues at the Government and Community Relations Office congratulate her.”

Hemphill said she is glad to be working with Sinai and believes that the board will benefit from working with her.

“I expect that Julie will be a great asset in building partnerships with our community, the County and of course the University,” Hemphill said in an email.  “She also will be great in furthering our work to advance overall academic achievement and Julie’s up close knowledge of what a governing body does and how an effective elected body works together through her work as the Mayor’s Chief of Staff will be very useful.”

Sinai will serve the remainder of Wilson’s term until the seat comes up for re-election in November 2014.

Contact Seif Abdelghaffar at sabdelghaffar@dailycal.org.

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On Wednesday, the board will release and then vote on the names of finalists for the position, which was vacated by Leah Wilson, former board president. Wilson resigned on March 31 after taking a position with the Alameda County Superior Court, the first time a school board member has resigned since 1909.

The applicants include two campus professors, the campus director of local government and community relations, and a scientist and former deputy director of the Nuclear Science Division of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, among others.

The candidates are Ty Alper, Peter Bloomsburgh, Michael Bolgatz, Meleah Hall, Spencer Klein, Dan Lindheim, Satish Rao, Margit Roos-Collins, Julie Sinai and Mark Zoidis.

Because the new board member will serve a partial term — until Nov. 30, 2014 — he or she needs to be able to “hit the ground running” and “immediately be an integral and contributing member of the board,” said board president Karen Hemphill.

In the coming months, the board will be learning to work with a new superintendent, “all while focusing on bridging the opportunity gap that exists along racial lines in our district,” Hemphill said in an email, referencing the city’s 2020 Vision program, which aims to close the city’s achievement gap by the year 2020.

Alper, a professor at the UC Berkeley School of Law, has seen this gap himself, as both he and his wife went through Berkeley public schools as children.

“I know firsthand how important it is for all children in this city to get the educational opportunities that will enable them to thrive,” Alper said, echoing many of the sentiments of his fellow candidates.

Many candidates who come from analytical backgrounds, such as computer science and financial advising, plan to bring their analytical minds to the job to address the numbers of the achievement gap in Berkeley public schools as well as those of the district’s budget.

Other applicants stressed the importance of maintaining solid and open relationships with the community.

“We need to be meeting the needs of our kids and families in relation to a positive education outcome,” Sinai, campus director of local government and community relations, said. “We as a community need to come together to provide coordinated support.”

The board has 60 days from the time Wilson’s resignation was submitted to fill the vacancy, according to the Berkeley city charter. It plans to fill the seat nine days before the deadline at its May 8 board meeting at the latest.

Megan Messerly covers city government. Contact her at mmesserly@dailycal.org and follow her on Twitter @meganmesserly.

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Wilson, who was elected board president in 2010, will be stepping down March 31. Wilson said her new position may be problematic if the Berkeley Unified School District were to undergo any lawsuits in Alameda County.

The last time a school board member resigned was in 1909, according to district spokesperson Mark Coplan.

Wilson, who is currently an analyst in the Alameda County Administrator’s Office, will soon take over as court executive officer, according to an Alameda County Court press release.

“(The position) is like being the city manager of the court,” said School Board Director Karen Hemphill. “She schedules court meetings and does all the paperwork. Her name will appear on a lot of documents of the court. If there is litigation involving the school district, her name would be on all of those, and it could be intimidating.”

The resignation of a school board member is rare and only happens during situations of conflict of interest and for pressing personal reasons, Hemphill said.

According to Hemphill, the president sets the tone for the rest of the board and represents it in conversations with the superintendent.

“It is hard to tell what is going to happen,” said Tom Killilea, president of the Berkeley PTA Council. “We don’t know how she will be replaced and who it will be.”

Wilson, who has been a large part of the board’s current search for a new superintendent, will have to be succeeded by someone whom the board can fill in on its process and progress, Killilea said.

Hemphill said, however, that the board president’s resignation will not delay the superintendent search in any way.

“This is a very good time to look for a superintendent,” she said. “We have got some dates set. We are scheduled to review applications next Wednesday and will hold interviews in the beginning of April.”

Wilson is scheduled to start her new position with Alameda County Superior Court on April 15. The school board will discuss replacing Wilson Wednesday night at a special board meeting at 6:25 p.m. in room 126 of the school district administration building at 2020 Bonar St., according to Hemphill.

Alyssa Neumann covers city government. Contact her at aneumann@dailycal.org and follow her on Twitter @AlyNeumann.

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