BOARD TO REVIEW FINALISTS FOR SCHOOL DISTRICT POST : SAUGUS UNION SCHOOL BOARD TO INTERVIEW FINALISTS FOR POST.

Byline: Mary Schubert Daily News Staff Writer

School board members tonight will interview four finalists to replace Michael Kennick, who recently resigned his seat with three years left on his term.

Eleven people applied for the one-year appointment to the Saugus Union School District board of education. Whoever is chosen will serve until November 1997, when the district conducts elections for three other school board seats, said Superintendent Joseph Fazio.

At that point, there also will be an election for the final two years of Kennick's term. The appointee will have the option to run for the seat, as will anybody else interested in the abbreviated term, Fazio said.

On Aug. 20, Kennick submitted a letter of resignation, which took effect Sept. 1. His term would have expired in November 1999.

``He took a job in Pella, Iowa, as the director of the utilities company in the city,'' Fazio said.

``He will be missed. I thought he was an excellent board member,'' Fazio said. ``I would characterize him as an advocate for the students.''

The finalists for appointment to the school board are Gary Murr, 49, Jonathan Myl, 39, Judith Umeck, 39, and Vanessa Wilk, 36.

Murr, a garment manufacturer, has been involved in the PTA and the school site council at Emblem Elementary. He also was on the Measure S committee and the district budget committee last year, Fazio said.

Myl, a certified public accountant, is a member of the Parent Faculty Organization at Highlands Elementary School. Last year, Fazio said, Myl sat on a committee that recommended how the district could reduce spending and balance its budget.

Umeck is co-director of recruitment and admissions at Providence High School, a Catholic school in Burbank. She also was on the Measure S committee, and has been active with the district's parent advisory committee. Umeck is president of the PTA at James Foster Elementary School and is a member of the school's site council, Fazio said.

Wilk is a homemaker whose background includes several years of volunteer work at Santa Clarita Elementary School; she has been a room mother, a member of the Parent Teacher Club and the district's parent advisory committee, and was involved with the campaign for Measure S, a local bond issue in 1993, Fazio said.

The board decided to make a temporary appointment to replace Kennick, 32, because it would have cost $75,000 to hold a special election, the superintendent said.

In comparison, when Kennick and fellow board member Rose Koscielny were elected in November, the Saugus Union School District paid just $27,055 to the Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk to hold the election.

However, Saugus shared the election costs with 70 school districts - including Acton-Agua Dulce, Castaic, Newhall, Sulphur Springs, William S. Hart and Santa Clarita Community College District - along with 14 cities and a dozen agencies, including the Newhall County Water District, said registrar spokeswoman Marcia Ventura.

Koscielny said the cost of staging an election would be far out of proportion to the job, which pays each board member a $240 monthly stipend set by the state Education Code.

``A special election would have cost us $75,000, and we're not going to do that to kids, because we don't have that kind of money in our budget,'' Koscielny said.

The seven other applicants for the vacant seat were Mitchell Bower, Rae Devery, Patricia Edgar-Brown, Curtis Paltza, John Relic, Rhonda Vigeant and Kenneth Yuwiler, the superintendent said.

Kennick had worked for the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power since 1989. He collected the second most votes of the four people who ran for two board seats in November, Koscielny said.

``He was a very good board member while he was here,'' she said.

The school board has 60 days to appoint Kennick's successor. Fazio said the board hopes to choose a new member by Oct. 1, and at least three votes will be needed to win the appointment.