Newly re-elected board member Steven Llanusa has been named president of the Claremont Unified School District Board of Education. While the title is largely ceremonial, it has been a long time coming for Mr. Llanusa, who is in the midst of his eighth year of the board.

Mr. Llanusa, who last year served as board vice president, received his new designation from his peers in an election held at Thursday’s school board meeting. He characterizes it as “a good development.”

“I’m very honored to have been selected to be president, and I’m very flattered that my colleagues consider me to be worthy of the job,” he said.

Mr. Llanusa is joined by a new vice president, Hilary LaConte, who has been on the school board since 2007. New board member Nancy Treser Osgood was elected clerk. The naming of board officers was followed by a cookie and coffee reception, organized by Superintendent Jim Elsasser and his administrative assistant Liz Jefferson, which drew a number of attendees.

After that, it was on to a busy meeting. Mr. Llanusa’s first task was to preside over the board’s honoring of two community groups that have distinguished themselves by service to Claremont schools. The first of these was the Claremont High School Girl’s Track Team, which has had a particularly winning year. The second was Claremont Rotary, which recently gave San Antonio a $2,000 grant to help fund equipment for vocational programming at the continuation high school.

Mr. Llanusa said Thursday’s meeting was a great chance to get a feel for how the new CUSD Board of Education, which includes new board member Dave Nemer as well as Ms. Treser Osgood, will operate.

“I thought the meeting went very smoothly,” he said. “We handled a full agenda very efficiently. That shows how well the board is going to work together for the upcoming year.”

—Sarah Torribio

storribio@claremont-courier.com