The Manteca Unified School Trust’s board of directors on Wednesday will discuss and determine how the opening of the position of executive director for the non-profit organization will be posted.

At the same special board meeting, scheduled to begin at 1 p.m. in Room 103 on the first floor of the district office at 2271 West Louise Avenue, the board is also expected to establish an interview committee for the hiring of the executive director.

Wendy King, a board of trustee with the Manteca Unified School District, was officially appointed to the part-time paid position of MUST executive director last year with a $20,000 annual compensation. Prior to that appointment, King served in that capacity as a volunteer.

During the June meeting, the MUST board decided it needs more time to determine a number of factors involved in the hiring of the executive director. These factors include the compensation that would be commensurate to the job responsibilities expected of the position plus the amount of time involved to fulfill those duties, and whether the position should be offered as a one-year or a multiple-year contract.

At the last meeting of the MUST board, King was asked to help in arriving at those decisions by providing a log of the actual hours she was putting into the job. MUST Vice Chairman Bill Van Ryn pointed out at the meeting that when they established the position of executive director to oversee the MUST programs and activities, the board did not have any data available to work on.

MUST was founded in 2006 by a group of concerned individuals including elected officials, educators and many members of the community at a time when dire budget constraints made it impossible for the school district to continue offering students life-enriching activities and programs such as after-school sports activities and arts classes. Hundreds of parents, area businesses and other people in the community supported the idea for such an organization and MUST became a viable organization that is now governed by a 15-member board.

Other programs that have benefited from MUST and would not have been available otherwise include the district’s Science Camp, a boys and girls basketball program and the revival of the annual Pumpkin Run held in conjunction with the popular annual Manteca Pumpkin Fair. These and other activities are in line with MUST’s mission to “support and promote the healthy lifelong learning of students in the Manteca Unified School District.”

At the Wednesday meeting, the MUST board will also:

•Consider and approve the revised MUST bylaws,

•Hear an update of the Board of Trustees’ meeting taking place this evening, and,

•Hear an update of the school district budget from the finance committee.