Longtime Alamo Colleges District Trustee Denver McClendon is set to step down Aug. 1 after submitting his resignation letter earlier this month, board Chair Marcelo Casillas confirmed Tuesday.
McClendon was appointed to the community college board in July 2003 and elected to his first full term in May 2004. His term was to expire in May 2022.
“[Alamo Colleges is] in a good place and, I think, in a place where it gives me the opportunity to kind of step away,” McClendon said. “I’ve been on the board 16 years and that’s a long time to serve. And I just thought it was time.”
The veteran trustee represents District 2, an area that abuts the East Side of downtown and extends south and east past Loop 1604.
The board will vote on accepting McClendon’s resignation at the next regular board meeting, scheduled for July 23. The remaining trustees then will begin searching for McClendon’s replacement, whom they will appoint.
Alamo Colleges trustees will take applications in late July or early August, and then conduct interviews in August, according to Casillas. McClendon’s replacement will take his or her seat in September and be up for election at the next regular election date, the board chair said.
One would-be candidate has already announced his intention to run to replace McClendon. Judson Independent School District trustee José Macias wrote Sunday night on Facebook that he would seek to replace McClendon.
Macias wrote that he would launch a campaign in the coming weeks and would apply for an appointment to the board, he wrote. If successful in replacing McClendon, Macias would have to step down from the Judson ISD board.
McClendon said he hopes his replacement is knowledgable about issues specific to District 2, where there are many underserved students.
“I would want to see someone who is as concerned about the Alamo Colleges as they are about their particular district, District 2,” McClendon said.
In his 16 years on the board, McClendon has served in a variety of officer roles, including chairman of the board. McClendon’s wife, former State Rep. Ruth Jones McClendon, died in late 2017.
