President of School Board Resigns Post

School board President Bobbee Cline has announced she is resigning her post because she is moving out of the Saddleback Valley Unified School District.

“The district and people in it have been a special part of my life for 21 years,” Cline, 52, said Tuesday. “So leaving it so suddenly and prematurely is ever so slightly emotional.”

A longtime school activist, Cline has served on the Saddleback Valley school board since June 1990 when she was appointed to fill a vacancy created by the resignation of Kristine Kister Robinson. Cline was elected to office in November 1990 and reelected to a second term in 1994. She served as board president in 1993 and 1997.

A mother of four district graduates, Cline was also one of the founders of CASE, Citizens Action to Save Education, an organization that works toward education reform.

Cline, who is moving into the Capistrano Unified School District, said she had hoped to maintain her residence while setting up her new home, allowing her to finish her term, which ends in November 1998. But that didn’t prove practical for her family, she said.

With Cline’s departure, Vice President Dore J. Gilbert will become the president of the board, which also includes clerk Marcia L. Birch and members Debbie Hughes and Don Sedgwick.

Cline said it will be up to the trustees to determine whether to appoint a new member to the board or hold a special election to fill the vacant seat.

In departing comments to the board, she urged her colleagues to appoint an individual to serve her remaining term, as a special election could cost the district from $120,000 to $145,000.

“I would hate to feel that my leaving would result in money being diverted from programs for the children for the purpose of an election,” Cline said.