Alamo Community Colleges' Board of Trustees Elects New Chairman and Officers

At their regular June board meeting, The Alamo Colleges Board of Trustees elected Denver McClendon, District 2 trustee, as chairman of the Board. Gary Beitzel, District 8 trustee, will serve as vice chairman, while District 4 Trustee Marcelo Casillas will serve as secretary, and newly elected District 3 Trustee Anna U. Bustamante will serve as assistant secretary.

McClendon was named to the District 2 seat by the ACCD Board in July 2003 and
then elected to serve a full term in May 2004. He most recently served as vice chairman and is chair of the Audit, Budget and Finance committee and a member of the Policy and Long-range Planning committee. A retired civil service employee, he is the owner of McClendon Properties, a company which acquires and manages residential real estate. He is also the operations manager for the Community Crime Prevention Network, Inc., which conducts training seminars in the areas of organizational skills, security and crime prevention for public housing executives. He previously served as the vice chairman of Workforce Solutions-Alamo and chaired the organization’s external relations committee.

“It is certainly an honor to be elected by my fellow board members as chairman,” said McClendon. “This is an exciting and challenging time for The Alamo Colleges as we strive to become the best community college district in the nation,” he added.

Beitzel, who has served on the board since 2002, was most recently secretary of the Board. He was reelected this past May to a new six-year term and serves as chair of the Policy and Long-Range Planning committee and as a member of the Audit, Budget and Finance committee. He brings more than 40 years of active duty and civil service experience with the U.S. Air Force to his position as an ACCD trustee. Beitzel was chief of the Information Management Requirements branch of the Plans and Programs Directorate at HQ Education and Training Command at Randolph AFB. Beitzel is active with the Boy Scouts of America and has served as cub master, assistant scoutmaster and scoutmaster.

Casillas also joined the board in 2002 and ran unopposed for a new six-year term this past May. He serves as chair of the Academic Accountability and Student Success committee and as a member of the Legal Affairs and Building, Grounds and Sites Selection committees. Casillas is a financial associate at Citigroup Bank and also the owner of Casillas Insurance Company. He is a life-long resident of San Antonio and of District 4. Casillas served on the South San Antonio School Board from 1990-1998 and was re-elected four times. He also served as president, vice-president and secretary of the board.

Bustamante is serving her first term on the board after being elected to the position in May. She is a member of the Legal Affairs committee. An educator for 25 years in the Southside ISD, Bustamante currently teaches music at Freedom Elementary School. After attending San Antonio College, she earned a bachelor’s in elementary education with a specialization in elementary music at Texas A&I University (now Texas A&M—Kingsville).