LAKE COUNTY, Calif. — The Middletown Unified School Board welcomed its newest member during a special Tuesday morning meeting.

Middletown Unified Superintendent Thad Owens administered the oath of office to Charise Reynolds at the start of the two-hour meeting, held at the Middletown Library Community Room.

“For the first time in months, we have a full board,” said Board President Larry Allen.

In a hotly contested race, Reynolds won the seat over Bryan Pullman in the June primary.

The primary results were finalized on July 7, and showed that Reynolds had received 55.21% of the vote compared to Pullman’s 44.79%.

The election for the Middletown Unified School Board seat actually was a special one that was consolidated with the general primary.

It was necessitated when a petition challenged the board's Dec. 1 appointment of Annette Lee to fill a seat vacated months earlier by LaTrease Walker.

Lee’s efforts to add more inclusive language to a resolution the board was considering that opposed the state’s proposed COVID-19 vaccine mandates had made her a target.

Walker and Austin Pullman, Bryan Pullman’s son, were among the signatories on the petition that challenged Lee’s appointment and resulted in her being removed from the board in January.

Allison Berlogar, who was appointed at the same time as Lee to fill a seat vacated by Owens — before he was named superintendent — was not challenged.

Nor was Chris Ochs’ appointment in March to succeed Misha Grothe, who resigned immediately after Owens’ appointment as superintendent in early March.

Reynolds and her fellow board members — Allen, Berlogar, Ochs and Zoi Bracisco — spent the morning in a workshop on public input procedures on agendized items. Other board training was rescheduled due to the district’s legal counsel being unable to attend.

Reynolds’ newly won seat is for a partial term and will be back on the ballot in the fall.

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