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Newest school trustee resigns her position

Andrew CristanchoSierra Sun
Seth Lightcap/Sierra SunSchool Trustee Vicki Isacowitz files textbooks at her tutoring business, Clever Minds, on Thursday. Isacowitz has announced her resignation from the school board, citing her desire to focus on her business.
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One of the newest members of the Truckee-Tahoe school board has resigned her seat a little more than one year after her election to public office.The owner of a private tutoring service, Vicki Isacowitz announced at Wednesday evenings meeting of the Tahoe Truckee Unified School District board of trustees that she would step down from her District 4 seat with three years left on a four-year term.Isacowitz cited concerns over having sufficient time to be effective in her position as a trustee and still manage her Truckee-based business, Clever Minds Educational Services. She said her business has been more challenging lately because of the loss of key personnel.When I joined the board I had a business partner, and now I dont, she said by phone on Thursday. [There] was too much on my plate; the board requires a lot of commitment and time.Isacowitz said operating the tutoring service since 2004 has realized a long-held dream, and she now wants to devote more time to the firms 91 clients and 16 teachers. The extra time she will devote to the company will not compensate for the regret that Isacowitz said she feels for leaving the board just as the district is on the verge of finding a new full-time superintendent a decision she called a critical one.I feel terrible. [But] I felt like I was staying on for other people, she said. I struggled with the decision. It doesnt feel good quitting something, [but] when I start something, I want to give it 100 percent, and [I] dont feel like I can.Many district administrators welcomed Isacowitzs presence on the board and said she paid particular attention to in-class instruction because of her experience as an educator.Every time she came, she would visit classrooms and her focus was always the quality of instruction, said Truckee High Principal Jay Cunningham. He said she was a strong advocate for the teachers, but did not represent one specific school site.She represented a unique niche because she was not an employee of the district, but was an educator, Cunningham said.Isacowitz also cared about the support staff, according to district Director of Transportation Nanette Rondeau.I really felt like she was supportive of transportation and realized the challenges of bussing school children, Rondeau said.Since moving to the area in 1996, Isacowitz taught at Squaw Valley Academy, Prosser Creek Charter School and Forest Charter School.According to district officials, the remaining four trustees will appoint a qualified person to fill the vacancy by the end of February.Specifically, the district will be soliciting applications from interested candidates in the next few weeks, and the candidates will be interviewed and appointed at a public meeting in February, said Trustee Bill Kraus in an e-mail.He said qualified applicants must be full-time residents of Area 4, which stretches south on Highway 89 toward Squaw Valley, and south on 267 past Northstar, including areas of Martis Valley, Northstar, Sierra Meadows, Ponderosa Palisades, east to Olympic Heights, the downtown area of Truckee and north to Highway 89 including Coachland.Isacowitz is the second district trustee to resign in recent years. In the summer of 2005, Cindy Gustafson resigned in the middle of her term and was replaced by current board member Bev Ducey, who represents Area 5.


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