Cindy Marks
CSBA Past President, Modesto City Schools Board Member
Cindy Marks was the 2013 President of the California School Boards Association (CSBA). CSBA represents school board members who govern public school districts and county offices of education. With a membership of nearly 1,000 educational agencies statewide, CSBA brings together school governing boards and administrators from districts and county offices of education to advocate for effective policies that advance the education and well-being of the state’s more than six million school-age children. The Association provides policy resources and training to members, and represents the statewide interests of public education through legal, political legislative, community and media advocacy.
As President of CSBA, Marks chaired a number of CSBA Task Forces and Councils. These include the Education Legal Alliance Steering Committee, the Linked Learning Task Force, and CSBA’s Superintendents Advisory Council. She also represented CSBA on the Education Coalition, a consortium of education stakeholder groups, and is a member of the Cities, Counties and Schools Partnership Board of Directors.
In addition to serving in these leadership positions at a regional and statewide level, Marks has served on numerous county-wide committees pertaining to at-risk youth and student achievement, and was appointed by the Legislature to the “Joint Committee to Develop a Master Plan for Education – Kindergarten through University.” She is currently a member of the Task Force on K-12 Civic Learning, a joint task force established by Chief Justice Tani Canti-Sakauye and State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson. The task force will bring definition to the skills, knowledge, and dispositions that students need to be informed and involved citizens and community members. Cindy led the subgroup on Business and Community Partners.
In 2013, President Cindy Marks was named, “Elected Woman of the Year by California Women Lead,” a nonprofit, nonpartisan association of women holding—or interested in holding—elected or appointed office. She was among five women honored by the organization.
Moreover, she has served on a variety of prestigious national governance-related committees including the “100 District Leader Network for Citizenship and Service Learning,” a collaboration among national education associations such as National School Boards Association and the American Association of School Administrators. She also served as chair of the National School Boards Association Pacific Region Board.
Elected in 1997 to the Modesto City Schools Board of Education, she has served on a number of district committees, including the School Attendance Review Board, School Infrastructure Financing Agency, Schools Diversity Task Force and the Facilities Task Force. Marks has volunteered for 11 years as a mentor at an inner city Apartment Complex in Modesto working with at-risk youth and gang members. And, for 15 years she was a junior high and high school Health Education speaker and for 13 years was a host family for unwed pregnant teens in her home.
She also is a board member for the Latino Emergency Council, the City Ministry Network and a founding member of the Dr. Parker Steering Committee to address the achievement gap and how it relates to African American Students.
Cindy’s passion for education, her expertise across a wide range of policy areas from school finance and fiscal reform to dropout prevention and school discipline, safe schools, and state and federal legislative issues make her one of California’s outstanding leaders.
