Steven Taglio Appointed as New LASD Board Trustee

The Board, acting with speed to find a replacement for , chose a former PTA president and volunteer at the district level as interim school board trustee.

Steven Taglio, a fixture at most school board meetings, will be sworn in Dec. 5. His term will go through December 2012.

The board interviewed four candidates Monday night, and deliberated in public session. With trustee Harrigan absent, the four-member board had split on Taglio and Mark V. Boenninghausen, a past member and treasurer of the and the LASD Citizens Advisory Committee for Finance, and a lawyer by profession. He also was a computer room supervisor at Los Altos High School in 1985-86, when he first graduated from college.

The deciding point appeared to be the Taglio's PTA involvement, a background board members said was valuable. Longtime Covington staff member Sandy Carse also strongly recommended Taglio.

"Steve, to date, is still involved at the district and school level," said school board President Bill Cooper. "This is someone who is here at all of our meetings, and outside of these meetings is still involved."

Taglio has served on the Los Altos School District Technology Committee, the Covington School Committee, the Covington Site Council and was PTA president at that school 2009-2011. He is vice president of marketing for Dyned Corp., in Burlingame, an English language-learning software and training company.

He described how the Covington PTA had dealt with "a microcosm of the District's challenges, onboarded a new principal, re-established our working relationship with the faculty, and identified/delivered services to augment program delivery across grades."

In his application he said the Covington PTA during his tenure they worked with faculty to reprioritize objectives "in order to align to gaps in district funding" they identified. His family moved to Los Altos 15 years ago for the schools and the community, he wrote. Now his son is at Los Altos High School and daughter is in her final year at Covington.

All four applicants listed among their top three priorities in their applications was finding a longterm solution for 's site. Taglio also said that avoiding "March Madness"—the annual stress of layoffs and later reinstatements of teachers and staff—through "improved predictability and longterm budgeting" was a priority.

"I think that public education is one thing that holds the community and the country together, and it needs to be invested in and sherpherded," Taglio said during his interview with the board Monday night.