Petitions Force Election to Fill Unexpired School Board Term

Petitions filed with the county registrar-recorder have been verified as sufficient to force a special election to fill the remaining term of a Paramount Unified School District trustee who died.

The registrar-recorder certified 346 signatures of registered voters which had been gathered by Jim Paisley, husband of the late Trustee Sandra Paisley, 52, who died of cancer in September.

Petitioners had to gather 271 signatures, 1.5% of the voters in the last regular Board of Education election, which was in 1983.

The special election will be held in conjunction with the next regular municipal election April 8, said Richard Wales, director of school organization and elections for the Los Angeles County Office of Education.

Paisley led the petition drive after the school board last month appointed former board member Ethel Hillyard to fill the unexpired term, which runs through 1987. Hillyard retired from the school board in 1981 after serving 16 years.

Hillyard could not take the seat, however, because the law permits a 30-day period for anyone opposed to the appointment to petition for a special election. The seat will remain vacant until the election.

Paisley said he opposes the appointment process and not Hillyard. “I just prefer an election, giving the people a choice rather than appointment,” said Paisley, 54.

Paisley said he had not decided whether he will be a candidate for the position.