The appointment comes just a few weeks prior to the Nov. 2 election in which two of the interviewers - board incumbents Charles Dickie and Sylvia Orozco - face the possibility of not being able to join their appointee. Their seats are up for grabs this year and both are running for reelection against seven other hopefuls.

The board is in need of a fifth member after the resignation of former trustee Michael Calta in September. Officials are working fast to fill the power vacuum before Superintendent Wayne Joseph and his staff determine cuts to fill the deficit, which board members are set to discuss and consider later this year.

Discussion about the applicant interview process focused on how long it would take. Joseph suggested it take place over one day on Oct. 16.

Board President Fred Youngblood suggested it take place over three days, although the board ultimately settled on holding the entire interview process next Friday.

"I felt the board would be more focused if it was scheduled in one day," Joseph said after the meeting.

After the board came to a consensus on the interview date, discussion moved toward the interview questions, with the board approving six.

Among the questions originally suggested by Orozco, although ultimately nixed by the board, was what stance the applicant has on the Bible as Literature and History Class being taught at three Chino Valley Unified schools.

"It was asked at a recent forum so it's still on everybody's mind, so I think it's important for us as board members to see what the candidates feel," Orozco said.

Youngblood, who was participating in the discussion via tele-conference from Georgia, asked to broaden the scope of the question, "so it doesn't seem like a litmus test on that class."

The board settled on asking applicants how they would vote in a case where there is a controversial issue in the community - whether they would vote their conscience or go along with the majority and why?

Other questions focus on how applicants would deal with the district's projected $31 million budget gap; how they would deal with district parents approaching them about a student's school experience; their views on the roles and responsibilities of individual board members and the superintendent; the three most critical items of priority in the district for the next three years; and a general overview of the applicants personal qualities and community involvement.

The board agreed to announce their decision at its Oct. 21 meeting.

For more information on the applicants and their interview schedule, visitwww.insidesocal.com/chinovalleynow.

neil.nisperos@inlandnewspapers.com, 909-483-9356

After months of reconstruction at a cost of $6 million, the former Reception Center West has been renamed The "CIM West Facility." The new buildings feature shatter-proof windows, fire-retardant siding, water sprinklers, stainless steel sinks, and bunks bolted to the ground.

One of the dorms, Joshua Hall, has been rebuilt from the ground up because the original had been gutted by fire.

"This is like a good thing that comes out of a bad situation," said CIM warden Aref Fakhoury. "The end result is that we have a more secure, more safe prison. The public is safer and

Evidence of the mayhem and violence that rendered Reception Center West uninhabitable was clear when Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and his corrections secretary, Matthew Cate, toured the bloodstained buildings a few days after the riot of August 2009.

The dorm yards and interiors were trashed with the inmates' possessions, rags, mattresses, clothing, and weapons torn from fixtures and crafted from broken tools and windows.

Cate returned to Chino on Wednesday for the grand-opening ceremony inside Mariposa Hall, the former dorm building where inmates began the riot.

Cate thanked the local management of the prison, its officers,and local responders and officials who helped contain the riot last year.

"Today is the payoff," he said. "We've rebuilt a facility where we can safely house inmates, a place where we can begin to rebuild, a place we can start to see people start to change their lives in a facility meant for this mission."

The Department of Corrections utilized inmate construction workers to rebuild the housing area's eight wooden buildings, which each feature steel two-bunk beds, showers and a guard office. Officials said the $6 million cost came from the state general fund.

As of Wednesday, about 600 inmates were residing in four of the eastern dorms in CIM West, with officials pledging to house a total of 960 inmates.

To address security issues, corrections officials said the refurbished dorms, which had been rendered uninhabitable by the riot, would no longer house higher-risk reception center inmates. Instead, West will house general population inmates who have already been processed through reception centers, said Lt. Mark Hargrove, spokesmen for the men's prison.

He said the inmates who will be housed at West have been determined to be in need of protective custody from other inmates who may want to harm them because, among other reasons, they may be sex offenders or former gang members.

Photo by Neil Nisperos/Staff. Corrections Secretary Matthew Cate stands in the shower room of a reconstruction men's dormitory at the Chino Institution for Men.