The Champaign Unit #4 school board filled their two vacancies with a University professor and an engineer Wednesday night.

Reginald J. Alston and Minosca Alcantara were chosen to replace Norman Lambert and Nicole Storch on the board. Both Lambert and Storch passed away earlier this year.

The board started out with 16 candidates for the two positions, and then narrowed it down to seven finalists, said Dr. Scott Anderson, president of the board.

They interviewed three finalists on Tuesday and four on Wednesday in public meetings. The board began deliberating in a closed session at 8:45 p.m. on Wednesday and came out with their decision an hour later.

Alston said he is looking forward to working with the superintendent and the rest of the board.

“I’m very excited to serve my community in this capacity,” Alston said.

He also said that some of his goals are to promote and hire exceptional teachers and administrators and to practice good fiscal management.

“We feel that both (Alston and Alcantara) bring a great voice and passion,” Anderson said. “All the candidates had outstanding quality. We felt good about the quality of the pool.”

Anderson said it was important for the board to have a diverse makeup in order to represent the community. Alcantara was the only Hispanic among the finalists and Alston was one of three blacks.

Alston is a professor in Community Health and associate head of the department. Alcantara is a civil engineer who is currently the Outreach Coordinator for the College of Engineering. Both will serve on the board until the 2007 election.

Champaign Unit #4 contains one early childhood center, 12 elementary schools, three middle schools and two high schools.

The other finalists included University professors and administrators, a chartered financial analyst and the former president of the Champaign PTA Council.