San Luis Coastal Unified School District (SLCUSD) Board Trustee Chris Ungar has been elected by his peers to serve as president of the California School Board Association (CSBA), which represents more than 6 million students and 5,000 school board members in the state.
“During the annual California School Boards Association Conference in San Diego in early December, our own Chris Ungar was elected President for 2016,” said SLCUSD Superintendent Dr. Eric Prater. “This is quite an honor, especially given the size of California and the number of school districts throughout the state.”
Ungar’s 29-year career in education includes volunteer time on the CSBA Board of Directors since 2007, where he represented Monterey, San Benito, San Luis Obispo, and Santa Cruz Counties. In addition, he continues to serve the SLCUSD School Board where he’s been a trustee for 15 years and president four times. Previously, he was the executive director of special education for the San Luis Obispo County Office of Education (SLOCOE) for 10 years and a speech pathologist for SLOCOE from 1989–2004.
“Dedication makes an effective leader–being dedicated to seeing that kids can achieve,” Ungar said in a recent interview with California Schools Magazine. “We hear folks say, ‘the time of my child having it better than I did is gone.’ Well, that’s an unfortunate way of thinking because we want our kids to have a better life than we have today, and one of the ways we do that is through education.”
Ungar also served on the board of directors of the Tri-Counties Education Coalition and the SLO County School Boards Association. He’s the president of the Project Surf Camp Board, an organization which teaches children with disabilities to surf, and a member of the California and American Speech Hearing Associations. Ungar’s wife, Elyse Ungar, is a retired special education teacher who taught for SLCUSD for 15 years.
“We have dedicated teachers in California willing to learn, and our commitment to the Common Core is key in how we’ve been able to implement the standards. The Next Generation Science Standards, too, are going to be really exciting,” Ungar added. “I think California is absolutely moving toward accountability and student achievement, and I stay and serve in California for these reasons.”
CSBA is a nonprofit organization that advocates for policies to advance student education and well- being, provides policy resources and training, and represents the statewide interests of public education through legal, political, legislative, community and media advocacy. More than 1,000 educational agencies are members.