Calabasas School Board Elects New President, Honors Cutbill

CALABASAS, CA — The Las Virgenes Unified School District board of education unanimously elected Kate Vadehra as president with Linda Menges as her vice president earlier in December.

Kate Vadehra Becomes President

Vadehra was first elected to the board in 2020. She is a pediatrician and had previously volunteered in the district before she was elected to the board.

Menges will work alongside Vadehra as vice president of the board. Menges was elected to the board in 2015, and in 2020 she ran to keep her seat on a platform that prioritized financial stability, racial equity and the pandemic learning environment.

Thank You, Cutbill

Outgoing president Angela Cutbill was elected to the board in 2013 and has served multiple terms as president. In her departing remarks, she emphasized the kindness she has seen in the district.

"I've seen so much caring in our district. From parents, from teachers, from kids — especially from teachers — that I'm just so heartened and so proud to be a part of Las Virgenes," Cutbill said.

Cutbill will stay on the board as a member.

Many of her colleagues and other elected officials recognized Cutbill for her hard work during a challenging time, including Congressman Ted Lieu, Agoura Hills Mayor Deborah Klein Lopez and Senator Henry Stern.

"On behalf of the entire team, the staff and the 10,300 students, we so appreciate Ms. Cutbill's calm, cool and collected leadership throughout the pandemic. This was a great time to have an experienced president leading the reopening of schools," LVUSD superintendent Dan Stepenosky said.

Stepenosky put Cutbill's year as president into numbers to display how hard she worked: Cutbill responded to 45 health order changes from Los Angeles County, had the lowest class sizes in LVUSD history, offered novel counseling services and responded to 9,043 emails, he said.

"We so appreciate your leadership, your heart — you care so deeply about the staff and the students and their well being and their safety and their learning and growth and we can see that in every action, every word, every visit to the schools," Stepenosky said.