SBUnified
Santa Barbara Unified’s Board of Trustees appointed Dr. Sunita Beall to fill a vacant seat during a Special Meeting Wednesday.
Dr. Beall is Santa Barbara Unified Parent and works as a physician at UCSB. She served as a Trustee on the Board of Santa Barbara Middle School since 2021. Dr. Beall also participates in the SBUSD Local Control Accountability Plan (LCAP) Parent Advisory Committee.
Dr. Beall was sworn in after the board voted on Wednesday evening, January 10, 2024.
The newly appointed Trustee will take a seat on the board at the January 16th meeting.
Two special hearings were held on Tuesday and Wednesday to interview 14 applicants for the vacancy.
Dr. Beall will replace Virginia Alvarez, who stepped down from her At-Large Trustee Area 5 position on November 27, 2023.
The Provisional Appointee will complete the remaining At-Large elected term until November 2024.
Congratulations Dr. Sunita Beall. So happy with the boards choice. Dr. Beall interview was excellent. She cares a great deal about education, is bilingual and has been active in the district. She talked about the importance of early childhood education, sat on the Literacy Task force and LCAP advisory task force and understands how to teach students to read, and supports the evidenced based with science of reading and will help to ensure the implementation is successful. She spoke about taking care that our teachers have a living wage; understanding of bargaining for unions; had a solid understanding of the nuisances of the budget and is a parent of a student in the district. She was open, well prepared and an excellent researcher . I think she will be a unifying, calm, thoughtful force, one that teachers know will look out for them and the students and communities concerns. Dr. Beall is also knowledgeable and accomplished and will be a wonderful role model for so many of our students and an asset to help the board during difficult upcoming negotiations. Very grateful our board choose Dr. Beall.