Brown nominates Sue Burr to the State Board she directed

Susan Frey

January 15, 2013

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Gov. Jerry Brown nominated Sue Burr to the State Board of Education on Monday, two weeks after she officially retired from her dual role as the executive director of the State Board and as education policy adviser to the governor. Her new job starts Wednesday, when the Board meets to take up an agenda that she helped prepare.

Burr previously served as the executive director of the California County Superintendents Educational Services Association (CCSESA), as the undersecretary of education under Gov. Gray Davis, and as interim secretary in 2000. She has also been a member of EdSource’s board of directors.

Hers was one of three appointments that Brown announced for the 11-member board, leaving one seat still unfilled. Burr was appointed to a four-year term. Niki Sandoval was appointed to a three-year term. Sandoval is the education director for the Santa Ynez Band of Chumash Indians. She is also a lecturer and has been a project evaluator at the University of California, Santa Barbara. In addition, she has served in multiple positions at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian and Museum of Natural History.

Brown also reappointed Ilene Straus, who has been on the State Board for two years, to a full four-year term. Straus was the assistant superintendent for educational services in the Beverly Hills Unified School District before retiring in June 2011. Before that, she was a teacher and an elementary, middle and high school principal.

Board appointees, who receive a stipend of $100 per day, have a year to be confirmed by the state Senate. The State Board is the policy body responsible for approving curriculum frameworks, textbooks, statewide assessments and standards for student performance. Board appointees’ terms are for four years unless they are filling a seat that has been vacated.

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