Three newly elected members of the Yosemite Community College District (YCCD) Board of Trustees were sworn into office at its annual organizational meeting on Dec. 14.

Darin Gharat (Area 5), Leslie Beggs (Area 6), and Jon Rodriguez (Area 7) join incumbent Board members, Lynn Martin, PhD (Area 1), Don Viss (Area 2), Abe Rojas (Area 3) who was re-elected and reaffirmed his oath of office, and Anne DeMartini (Area 4).

Also at that meeting, the YCCD Board of Trustees elected DeMartini of Ceres as the new YCCD Board Chair through November 2017. DeMartini has served on the YCCD Board since 2002 representing YCCD Trustee Area 4, which includes the western portion of Stanislaus County, a small eastern portion of Santa Clara County, and northwestern portion of Merced County. DeMartini succeeds outgoing Chair Abe Rojas of Turlock.

The board also elected Gharat of Modesto (representing YCCD Trustee Area 5, which includes a north-central portion of Stanislaus County and a south-central portion of San Joaquin County) to serve as vice chairman.

In other action, the following trustee appointments were made:

• Abe Rojas to serve on the Association of Stanislaus County School Boards and as the voting representative to attend the Stanislaus County annual meeting;

• Dr. Lynn Martin to serve on the Columbia College Foundation Board;

• Don Viss to serve on the Modesto Junior College Foundation Board;

• DeMartini to serve on the Great Valley Museum Foundation Board.

The colleges of the Yosemite Community College District are governed by the board elected to represent the wide geographical and culturally diverse area encompassed by the district. The YCCD covers a 4,500-square-mile area and serves a population of over 625,000. Meetings are held the second Wednesday of each month, generally beginning at 5:30 p.m.

Meeting agendas can be found online at www.yosemite.edu.