Kathy Howe is the cat’s meow as far as admirers in the Lathrop School preschool class are concerned.“Raise your hands if you would like blue goo,” Howe said as she paused from reading Dr. Seuss’ “Fox in Socks” book on Wednesday.Arms quickly shot up from nearly two dozen eager kids as they eagerly waved their hands.Howe — decked out in a Cat in the Hat custome complete with the prerequisite red-and-white striped floppy stovepipe style hat — pointed to a girl.“I do,” the girl offered as her classmates — all wearing their own paper versions of the “Cat on the Hat” headgear — burst into giggles.Howe has become a familiar face in the Lathrop community and schools as well as a number of other Manteca Unified campuses during the past few months.She’s dropped by Lathrop City Council meetings and has attended Lathrop community fundraisers such as crab feeds.It is all part of her commitment as the Area 2 Manteca Unified School District trustee to reach out to the community she represents to find out their concerns and what they’d like to see happen when it comes to their schools.“It is the only way to find out what the community wants (to see) in their schools.” Howe said.Up until last year being a school board member was the farthest thing from her mind.She was enjoying retirement after teaching for 35 years. She spent the bulk of her career teaching kindergarten through sixth grade classes at Neil Halley School.But then the Manteca Unified board took off on a disruptive tangent after the November 2014 voting that saw the election of Ashley Drain to represent Area 2 and Alexander Bronson to represent Area 6.Drain from the start sparked controversy, friction, and animosity.Eventually both resigned after they were charged with voter fraud in connection with using addresses they did not live at in order to run for their respective seats.