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Faye Lane given heartfelt sendoff by CUSD
Faye Lane leaves
Retiring School Board member Faye Lane was applauded for her 16 years of service to the board at a recent meeting. Among those honoring her were Ceres High’s Alana Inahara and Central Valley’s Valeria Torres Aleman who are student representatives. - photo by Photo courtesy of Ceres Unified School District

The Ceres Unified School District board gave a heartfelt sendoff to retiring board trustee Faye Lane at its Nov. 14 meeting, lauding her for 16 years of service.

First elected to the School Board in 2007, Lane decided against a fifth term and is being replaced by Alondra Reyes, the lone candidate for the Area 4 seat. Reyes was appointed to a four-year term by the Stanislaus County Board of Supervisors in lieu of unnecessarily appearing on the Nov. 5 ballot. Incumbent trustees Hugo Molina (Trustee Area 6) and Brian de la Porte (Trustee Area 1) also return to four-year seats and no opponents on the Nov. 5 ballot.

During her tenure she worked alongside four superintendents – Walt Hanline, Scott Siegel, Denise Wickham and Amy Peterman, saying they all worked as a team.

“I was very lucky to have good superintendents to work for,” said Lane. “Sometimes you have a superintendent who tells you how to think and do it their way. Our superintendents work with us on the School Board.”

Lane also stated that she worked with good boards over the years. Among the milestones Lane enjoyed were helping to break ground on Cesar Chavez Junior High School in August 2009 and Walt L. Hanline Elementary School, Lucas Elementary School and Patricia «Kay» Beaver Elementary School all in 2012. She also enjoyed attending annual graduation ceremonies.

“It was a good experience to see the kids smile and thank you. I enjoyed handing out diplomas to them.” 

Before her election to the board, Lane spent 32 years working as a classified employee with the Ceres Unified School District, starting out as a paraprofessional and later a school secretary at Walter White Elementary. She retired from CUSD as an employee in 1997.

Because there were six candidates on the ballot, Lane didn’t think she’d win the November 2007 School Board race. At the time CUSD board members served at-large before CUSD went to district elections. Lane and Jim Kinard defeated incumbents Diane Sol and Yvette Nunes and beat out Donald McKim while Eric Ingwerson won re-elected.

Faye Blakely came to Ceres from Turlock after she married Elvis Lane. The marriage produced sons Ken Lane, who served on the Ceres City Council for many years; and Stan who was a member of VIPS (Volunteers in Public Safety). Elvis passed away 24 years ago. She is now at grandmother and great-grandmother.

In 2014 Lane was honored by then Assemblyman Adam Gray as the “Woman of the Year” for the 21st Assembly District.