A man who spent his working years managing state offices has become the newest member of the Fort Bragg School District Board.
Robert J. Hotchkiss, 68, joined the board for a May 10 meeting that stretched for more than three hours, but he smiled and said he was ready when other board members kidded about the ordeal of long meetings.
Hotchkiss was the lone applicant for the seat vacated by Joe Lang, a peace officer who moved out of the area. Hotchkiss will fill out the remainder of that term, facing election in November along with fellow trustee Linda Rosengarten.
“I read the Advocate-News and saw the ad in the newspaper. We are fairly new to the area having been here since 2002. This seemed like a chance to put my state level experience in the education field,” Hotchkiss said.
He and his wife, Liza, moved to Fort Bragg in 2002 and own Bragg About It, a hair salon on South Franklin Street. Liza Hotchkiss still works several days a week as a hairstylist in Sacramento and also runs the business in Fort Bragg.
Robert Hotchkiss retired from a career as a manger for the state in September 2001, by which time he had climbed to near the top of the Employment Development Department and Health and Human Service Agency. Recent positions held included the post of deputy director, Workforce Investment Branch 2000-2001, and assistant secretary, California Health and Human Services Agency, 1999-2000.
Hotchkiss said no particular issue motivated him to join the board and he doesn”t come with an agenda for the schools. He said he is in the learning stage and plans to make site visits and spend a lot of time with Superintendent Steve Lund over the coming weeks.
Asked about the gang issue, he said it looks like progress is being made.
“I think the new chief is very progressive in his thinking about the issue and is engaging the schools,” said Hotchkiss.
Hotchkiss has a B.A. in English Literature from UC Berkeley and, perhaps more importantly for his new post, attended El Camino High School near Sacramento and a junior college. He lived in a small town in the 1950s that was swiftly becoming a large town.
“We moved here for the same reason lots of people do, the spectacular beauty and because we are fairly removed here from the growth that is overwhelming so many other areas,” Hotchkiss said.
His state employment included a wide variety of work with employment, labor markets and also some school-related work such as linking the EDD to community colleges and “the school-to-career project.”
“I was very much involved in that for several years,” he said. He was also on the Council for Private Post Secondary Education.
Hotchkiss wore an ash three-piece suit and tie to his first meeting but appeared more relaxed than formal as he participated, asking questions about the difficult process of interdistrict transfers. He voted with the three other board members at the meeting. (Rosengarten was absent.) All votes were unanimous, including student representative Scott Frazer”s votes.
