Candidate for
Governing Board Member; Fremont Unified School District

Lara York - Fremont Unified School District Board of Education

Lara York, 37, has lived in Fremont since 1992 with her husband, Steve. Her two sons attend Fremont Unified schools. She is a California native, grew up in San Jose and attended public schools from kindergarten through college, earned a bachelor's degree in business administration and minor in Sociology from California State University, Chico.

Lara first became active in the community through the FUN (Fremont-Union City-Newark) Mothers' Club; she served as its president from 1999 to 2000.

After the failure of a Fremont Unified School District bond in 1998, Lara became concerned about the district's troubles and joined the Community Facilities Committee and began regularly attending school board meetings. She has served on an impressive array of district and other school-related committees, including: the Financial Advisory Committee, the Health & Safety Bond Committee; Parent Representative Advisory Assembly; GATE (Gifted and Talented Education) Committee; School Site Council and the PTA. In 2003 the Fremont Schools Management Association gave her its Friend of Education award.

Lara is perhaps best known in Fremont for her work since 2000 as a dedicated board member, vice-president and president of the Fremont Education Foundation, a public non-profit organization which raises money to provide educational enrichment for all Fremont's children and teachers. She has coordinated the foundation's After School Band Program and produced and hosted the group's annual Music Telethon.

She also serves as president of the Fremont Chamber of Commerce's Dollars for Scholars nonprofit, which awards scholarships to promising local students.

Lara is an active member of the League of Women Voters, working on various projects over the past four years including moderating episodes of the local chapter's "Voting Matters" cable TV program, registering voters and chairing the group's education committee.

She also has been a member of Parents Helping Parents, Citizens for Better Community, Fremont Cultural Arts Council and Math/Science Nucleus.