After more than a month, the Gustine Unified School District Board of Trustees has found its newest member.

Evelyn Gimlett was selected as the district’s Area 4 representative after the board unanimously voted for her to serve the position following interviews with the finalists during the open session portion of last Wednesday‘s special board meeting.

Gimlett will take the position previously held by Andrew Bloom, who concluded his short tenure with the board after he announced his resignation last month. In a statement given during a Jan.8 board meeting, Bloom mentioned that he resigned due to him believing that he was perceived as having a potential conflict of interest between his involvement as a district board member and a Farmer Power Team Volunteer within Gustine High School’s FFA Chapter.

For Gimlett, being on GUSD’s Board of Trustees presents an opportunity to get involved in the school district that her three-year-old daughter will be attending and be a voice for the Santa Nella community.

“I live in the actual Santa Nella community and it’s so small. There’s so many children there and being that there is not that many resources available outside of what the actual school [district] provides, I think it will be a good way for me to have [a] voice for not only me and my kids, but for the children and parents that live in that community,” Gimlett said.

Gimlett stated that she didn’t run as a candidate for GUSD’s Area 4 Board of Trustees position during last year’s general election due to taking care of parental obligations at the time. However, that changed when she saw an advertisement for the opening on social media.

The district put out an online application for the position in January.

Both Gimlett and Loretta Rose were selected as finalists and for an interview with the board. Rose was previously on the GUSD board for more than 10 years and ran against Bloom for the Board of Trustees position during last year’s general election. According to the 2024 Merced County election results, she secured 41.3% of the overall votes.

Gimlett has a background in working in healthcare specifically with a pharmacy and nursing. At that moment, she is currently homeschooling her three-year-old daughter.

During the interview, the board asked each candidate some of the following questions:

●     Why do you want to join the board?

●     What are some of your goals?

●     What is your stance on current community involvement within the school district’s decisions?

The board began with Rose for the first interview. Rose mentioned that she wanted to rejoin the board because of her interest in a better education for the students and Career Technical Education within the district.

Regarding community input on the district’s decision, Rose believes parents should be informed about what’s going on within GUSD’s schools and if a parent brings something to a staff member, they should notify the superintendent as soon as possible.

Rose’s goal as a board member is to help GUSD become a district that people want to be a part of rather than going to another school district.

In her interview, Gimlett mentioned that one of the reasons why she wanted to join the board was to help “create a bridge between” Hispanic parents who may want to communicate but can’t due to language barriers. She added that by using her skills in writing and speaking Spanish and utilizing social media, the district can help reach the Hispanic community and inform them about upcoming announcements.

According to the United States Census Bureau, Hispanic or Latino individuals made up 65.4% of Gustine’s population in 2023.

Some of Gimlett’s goals as a board member are to get more parents involved and make study programs more accessible for children attending the schools within the district.

Following the board’s decision to choose Gimlett, she was sworn in as a Board of Trustees member. The meeting was later sent into a closed session that focused on getting Gimlett acclimated to her new position.

“I look forward to working together with all the board members to provide resources for all the children within our school district and resources for parents to get more involved. Hoping that we can move towards the positive light with ears for the community,” Gimlett said.

Navtej Hundal is a freelance journalist in Stanislaus County.