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At a special meeting on Tuesday, the Eureka City Schools (ECS) District Board of Trustees unanimously voted to appoint Cynthia Bones, a senior planner with the Yurok Tribe, to represent Trustee Area 2 on the school board. The seat was previously held by former ECS Board President Mike Duncan, who vacated the position for unknown reasons sometime last month.

Four other applicants applied for the vacant seat, including Thavisak “Lucky” Syphanthong, who is also running for a seat on the Eureka City Council.

Bones has three children attending schools within the district and has volunteered as a parent representative on the school district’s Indian Education Parent Advisory Committee (PAC) and Lafayette Elementary’s School Site Council. She has also served on the Yurok Tribe’s election board and enrollment committee. 

“In the past committees I have sat on my first question is how does this help the majority of our students. I would like to continue this on a larger scale,” Bones wrote in her application for the Trustee Area 2 position. “I would like to be on the board so that I can help be an advocate for all children.”

The ECS Board of Trustees has been subject to intense scrutiny in the ten months since its five members unanimously approved a land exchange agreement with “AMG Communities - Jacobs, LLC,” a mysterious private developer who promised nearly $6 million for the long-blighted Jacobs Campus. The controversial decision put an abrupt end to years-long property negotiations between the school district and the California Highway Patrol, which had hoped to build its new headquarters on the site. In August, the board unanimously agreed to back out of the deal with AMG Communities- Jacobs following multiple delays in closing escrow.

In her application, Bones underscored the importance of public participation and transparency in decision-making, noting that the Board of Trustees should do more to ensure constituents understand the process. “I believe there should be an open door policy with the board,” she wrote. “The board should be able to hear concerns and work with the community to navigate the proper procedures to follow up on their concerns.”

Bones’ appointment to the Board of Trustees was approved in a 4-0 vote. Her four-year term will officially begin once she takes the oath of office at an organizational meeting on Dec. 12.

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The ECS Board of Trustees will convene for its regular meeting tonight at 6:30 p.m. at the Board of Education for Eureka City Schools – 2100 J Street in Eureka. The board will meet in closed session with CHP’s negotiating team to discuss the sale of the Jacobs Campus. There’s no telling when the board will make a decision.

Tonight’s agenda can be found at this link.