Three Trustees Will Continue Terms on Board Unopposed

Betchtel, Casas Frier and Plotkin will be sworn in at Dec. 3 meetingThree members of the Board of Trustees of the Foothill-De Anza Community College District will be appointed to serve additional four-year terms because they have no challengers in the Nov. 6 election.Incumbent trustees Betsy Bechtel, Laura Casas Frier and Hal Plotkin will be sworn in at the Dec. 3 board meeting for new terms of office that run from January 2008 through 2011. The district's last uncontested election was in 2001.Bechtel, who was first elected in 2003, has a long record of public service. She served for nine years on the Palo Alto City Council, including terms as mayor and vice mayor. Bechtel joined the Peace Corps and taught in Ecuador after graduating with bachelor's and master's degrees from Stanford University, then taught sixth grade in San Jose upon her return. After working for a member of the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors, she joined the financial services industry. Bechtel worked as a vice president for both Citibank and J.P. Morgan, and currently sits as a board member on Borel Bank's executive and audit committees, and chairs its community relations committee. Bechtel is a former member of the Foothill-De Anza Foundation Board of Directors, on which she served as president, and has held leadership positions in a number of community organizations. She currently serves as a member of the Foothill-De Anza Board of Trustees' Audit and Finance Committee.Casas Frier was appointed to the board in November 2005 to fill a vacancy upon the death of Andrea Leiderman. She holds a law degree from Santa Clara University and a bachelor's degree in political science from California State University, Northridge. Casas Frier has worked on behalf of domestic violence victims and underrepresented students, and is a strong advocate at the state level on behalf of community colleges. She was recently named to the statewide Community College League of California's Advisory Committee on Legislation and serves as a Board of Trustees' representative to the Foothill-De Anza Foundation Board of Directors. She is an active board member of the 6th District PTA in Santa Clara County, serving as vice president of education. She also serves on the education committee of the Leagues of Women Voters of Santa Clara County. Casas Frier has worked in the litigation unit of a commercial liability carrier.Plotkin was elected in 2003 and is president of the Board of Trustees this year. He is an author, journalist and business analyst whose topics include public policy, finance, education, technology and science. Plotkin was founding editor of Marketplace, the public radio network's nationally broadcast business and economic news program, and served two terms on the California State Economic Strategy Panel. He earned an associate's degree from Foothill College in 1995 and a bachelor's degree in behavioral science from San Jose State University the following year. Prior to assuming the board presidency in December, Plotkin chaired the board's Audit and Finance Committee. He is currently promoting a national effort to encourage community colleges and universities to incorporate open educational resources into the classroom to improve the quality of teaching and learning, and reduce the escalating cost of traditional textbooks. He is the first Foothill College graduate elected to the Board of Trustees.Released Oct. 3, 2007