Faye Lane has spent most of her life devoted to students. Not only was she a mother but she worked for the Ceres Unified School District for many years and is preparing to step off the Ceres Unified School District Board of Trustees at the end of the year, after 16 years of service.
“I think I’ve been there long enough,” said Lane who was first elected in 2007. “I’m getting up years in age.”
Lane decided against a fifth term and will be replaced by Alondra Reyes, the lone candidate for the Area 4 seat. Reyes will all be appointed to a four-year term by the Stanislaus County Board of Supervisors in lieu of unnecessarily appearing on the Nov. 5 ballot. The same goes for incumbents Hugo Molina (Area 6) and Brian de la Porte (Area 1) who ran unopposed.
By the end of her tenure she would have worked with four superintendents – Walt Hanline, Scott Siegel and Denise Wickham; and Amy Peterman in her final months.
“I was very lucky to have good superintendents to work for. 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. We work as a team together.”
Lane also believes she has worked with a number of good boards over the years.
Before getting elected to the board, Lane spent 32 years working as a classified employee with the Ceres Unified School District, starting out as a paraprofessional at Walter White Elementary. She later became a school secretary and was there at the time flamboyant TV personality and fitness guru Richard Simmons made a surprise visit to Anne Aubert’s Walter White School classroom on July 10, 1991.
She retired as a CUSD employee in 1997.
Lane never thought she would be elected to the School Board in 2007, noting that there were six candidates running that November. Back then the seats were at-large until CUSD went to district elections. Lane and Jim Kinard unseated incumbents Diane Sol and Yvette Nunes and beat out Donald McKim while Eric Ingwerson won re-elected.
She helped break ground on Cesar Chavez Junior High School in August 2009.
Some of the highlights of her service was attending the annual graduation ceremonies and handing out diplomas.
“It was a good experience to see the kids smile and thank you. I enjoyed handing out diplomas to them.”
Faye Blakely came to Ceres from Turlock once she was married to 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 the grandmother of five and great grandmother of one.
Lane has had a distinguished career and in 2014 Lane was honored by then Assemblyman Adam Gray as the “Woman of the Year” for the 21st Assembly District.
