Sam Fant has already made a name in a number of community involvements in Stockton. Now, he also wants to make a difference in the lives of students in the Manteca Unified School District.

He is one of three candidates vying for the Area 1 seat being vacated by Trustee Rex Holliday who decided not to run for a second term to concentrate on completing his doctorate degree.

“I was born and raised in San Joaquin County and I’m a product of public education system,” Fant said during the introduction portion of the recent MUSD Candidates Night.

He is a resident of Weston Ranch, formerly a county unincorporated area of French Camp, which later became part of the incorporated city of Stockton but remained under the jurisdiction of Manteca Unified School District.

“I’m a resident of Weston Ranch but I’ve always been active in Stockton and Weston Ranch,” said the 23-year-old Fant.

He is running for the school district’s Area 5 because “I want to bring my experiences in the board,’ he said.

Those experiences he was referring to run the gamut. In January of this year, he was appointed by Governor Jerry Brown to the 2nd District Agricultural Association of the San Joaquin County Fair Board. Fant is also currently the chairman of the Stockton Planning Commission.

A Democrat and a graduate of Lincoln High School in Stockton, Fant is also a football coach at Bear Creek High School in the Lodi Unified School District.

He has been director of the Sierra Vista Community Center in Stockton since 2010, and has held multiple positions with the Boys and Girls Clubs of Stockton from 2007 to 2010.

Fant is in a three-way race in the Nov. 6 elections for the Area 5 school district of Manteca Unified, with Sharla Moore and Alison Ordner.

Two other Trustees in the seven-member panel are ending their current terms in November – incumbent Michael Seelye of Area 3, and Wendy King of Area 5. Seelye is running for a second term unopposed. Deborah Romero, who filed papers for King’s Area 5, also is running without any opposition. She and Seelye will be automatically appointed and sworn in to their respective seats.