Special election set to fill vacancy on Los Banos Unified school board. Who will run?

The Los Banos Unified School Board is letting voters decide who will be the next trustee to represent District 1.

The six-member board recently decided to put the issue before voters for a special election on the Nov. 2 ballot.

The District 1 seat, which includes northeast Los Banos, was left vacant as of Feb. 19 after Anahi Rodriguez moved out of the coverage area.

The filing deadline to run for the District 1 seat is July 12 to Aug. 6, according to Darlene E. Ingersoll, Merced County registrar of voters.

Previously, on April 19 the board had considered filling the seat with a provisional appointment. Unable to reach a decision among the four candidates, however, the board opted to let voters decide.

The four choices who were before the board included:

• Dennis Areias — Served on the Los Banos Unified School Board for 21 years from 1998 to 2018.
• Justin Collins — Owner of the Los Banos Talk, a local news media company and marketing firm.
• Alma Fabian — Special education teacher at Patterson High School.
• Gene Lieb — Former publisher of the Los Banos Enterprise and longtime member of Los Banos Rotary.

It’s still unclear whether some of the provisional candidates who were considered in April will run for the District 1 seat in November.

Fabian told the Sun-Star that she has the full intention of running in November. “There are many reasons (for wanting to be a part of the board). One of the principal reasons is because I have noticed student achievement, especially with COVID, is going downhill,” Fabian said.

“I have two students that are currently at the high school, one in elementary, I feel if I join that’s looking forward to making sure all students are being successful or achieving.”

Collins told the Sun-Star he has decided against running, saying being a candidate would not make it possible cover the election for Los Banos Talk.

“I feel like the way I can help people the most is just by doing what I’m doing (with) local election coverage. That’s a better capacity versus running for myself,” he said.

“It’s really the top political issue in town, but honestly this election is one of the most consequential elections locally we’ve had in awhile and probably one of the most paid attention to in Los Banos.”

The Sun-Star placed calls to Lieb and Areias, but thus far they have not confirmed whether they will run in November.

Any Los Banos resident who is age 18 or older and lives within District 1 is eligible to run.

Los Banos Unified School has 14 schools, serving a total of 10,469 K-12 students.