LAKE COUNTY, Calif. — A south county contractor said he is running for the Middletown Unified School District seat that is the focus of a special election in June.

Bryan Pullman is seeking the seat, which was forced to go to a special election after a petition was filed against a provisional appointment made by the board in December. That special election has been consolidated with the June 7 statewide primary.

Also on the ballot for the seat is parent and school volunteer Charise Reynolds.

Both Pullman and Reynolds were among the 10 candidates the Middletown Unified School Board interviewed in December when it filled the seats vacated by Thad Owens and LaTrease Walker by appointing Allison Berlogar and Annette Lee, respectively.

However, Lee’s appointment was challenged by a petition, which resulted in Lake County Superintendent of Schools Brock Falkenberg calling the special election. Until that election takes place, the fifth seat on the board will remain vacant.

The proponents of the petition that led to the special election were Cobb resident LaTrease Walker, and Hidden Valley Lake residents Charles Green and Austin Pullman. Austin Pullman is Bryan Pullman’s son.

Bryan Pullman said he has lived in Middletown for many years, moving to the area in 1972 as an eighth grader.

He said he has lived in Lake County continually ever since, minus a stint in the Army.

“I am married to a local girl, and we raised four children, all of them also graduated from MUSD,” Pullman wrote in an announcement. “We now have 12 grandchildren, many of them living in Middletown. I am very much invested in this town!”

Pullman said he has many years of business experience, much of it as a public works contractor, while mostly working for cities, counties, universities, schools and the state.

“I understand budgets, have good people skills and know how to work through bureaucracies. I believe in negotiation and compromise but also believe that there are times when I need to hold the line,” he said.

Since last year, Pullman has been a frequent presence at the Middletown Unified School Board meetings, and has been critical of the district over its adherence to state COVID-19 mandates, including the requirements for masking that have since been relaxed.

“Education in our state is facing many challenges and that is certainly the case in our small town as well. I believe we need to bring control of our district back to the people who are raising families here. We need to attract and retain the best teachers, staff and administrators that we can. Budgets need to be controlled but they need to be balanced so that there are funds to attract people who are committed to educating the future members of our community in the best manner possible,” Pullman said in a written statement.

“We need to ensure that the curriculum is in keeping with the values of the parents in the Middletown area and not based upon what Sacramento thinks is needed for us based upon the needs of large cities in our state — or worse yet, Washington telling us what they want us to teach, holding us hostage by attaching funding to our level of cooperation,” Pullman said.

“We need to ensure that our students are free to experience school in a safe and healthy environment that also takes into consideration their freedoms and psychological health and growth. Students and staff also deserve to have medical freedom to make their own decisions about their personal safety and health. These challenges seem to be gone, but there will be other challenges that will come before us, and we need to be able to react to them in a thoughtful and responsible way that addresses our unique situation,” Pullman continued.

He said the board needs to listen to the people who come and petition them for change, and then they must act upon that information to improve the education environment in the schools.

“The students must come first, and I believe this is the main purpose of the board, to ensure the success of the students. Parents are responsible for their children’s education and the school needs to be responsive and sensitive to what the parents feel is important,” he said.

Pullman said funds need to be budgeted for keeping the school grounds and facilities in the best possible shape, for safety reasons as well as aesthetics.