Santa Clara trustee nominated Assistant Secretary of Education
by President Bush
By Christopher Quirk Staff Writer
Gilroy – Williamson M. Evers, a board member with the Santa Clara County Office of Education, was nominated Thursday by President George Bush to be U.S. Assistant Secretary of Education for Planning, Evaluation and Policy Development.
“The board is truly going to miss him,” said fellow member Jane Howard. “There aren’t a lot of assistant secretaries of education out there.”
Evers has a history of working on the national level and under the Bush administration. Evers was a leader of the education-community supporters for the election of Bush in 2000 and 2004. In 2001, Bush appointed Evers to the White House Commission on Presidential Scholars. Evers also served from July to December 2003 as senior adviser on education to L. Paul Bremer of the Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq.
In 2004, Evers was elected to the Santa Clara County Board of Education for Area 1, encompassing Palo Alto Unified, Sunnyvale, Mountain View-Whisman school districts and sections of Fremont Union and Mountain View-Los Altos Union high school districts.
“One of the biggest things he’s going to be remembered for is being thorough in asking for accountability,” said Howard. “He really knew how to drill down into the details.”
Howard, who has worked with Evers since May 2005, emphasized that Evers’ appointment to the national post would benefit Santa Clara County.
“It’s important to have someone who understands the impact on a local or county level,” Howard said.
Evers has taken a leave of absence from the Stanford University think tank, the Hoover Institution, at which he is a fellow, but has resigned from the SCCBE.
The board is accepting applications now through March 5 to fill the position through November 2008. Applicants must be registered to vote and reside within Board Trustee Area 1.
