On Friday, the state Board of Education will have seven empty seats out of 11 total, leaving many education officials to ponder not only who the governor will choose to fill those chairs, but also when.

Already shy four members from previous Davis administration vacancies, the board will lose three more members when their terms expire on Thursday, including board president Reed Hastings, the CEO of Los Gatos-based Netflix.

Because of the existing vacancies, the board met last week with only six members, with one out for a family emergency. Although they technically had a quorum, the board postponed a few topics until its next meeting in March.

Although Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has two months before the next meeting to appoint nominees to some or all the posts, education leaders said the positions require extensive knowledge about the issues to be covered, and new board members would need time to get up to speed.

"There are a lot of issues facing this board," said state Sen. Dede Alpert, D-San Diego, a member of the Senate Education Committee. "I know the governor's busy, but I hope he'll move as quickly as possible on this."

Technically, Hastings and outgoing members Robert Abernethy and Nancy Ichinaga can keep their seats for an additional 60 days -- through the next meeting -- if no one is appointed to fill them.

But Schwarzenegger is in a unique position to completely overhaul the state board, Alpert said, and one would think he'd want to do that sooner rather than later.

"There's so many things to be dealt with you'd think they'd want to be sure to have those appointments reflect their philosophy," she added. "He literally can shape the whole direction of the board."

All appointments to the board must be confirmed by the state Senate.

After the governor appointed Richard Riordan as Secretary of Education, rumors swirled that the former mayor of Los Angeles would want to be on the board himself. It was unclear Monday if Riordan was still pursuing that idea.

Meanwhile, current president Hastings said Monday he would like to serve on the board again, a reappointment the Silicon Valley businessman said Riordan supports. Hastings also has the blessing of state Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O'Connell.

But Hastings gave more than $200,000 to former Gov. Gray Davis during the recall election, which could make a Schwarzenegger appointment politically tricky.

Lance Izumi, a senior fellow at the Pacific Research Institute -- a San Francisco-based, free-market research organization -- also has been among the many rumored to be up for consideration.

"I'm assuming my name is in the mix right now," said Izumi from his Sacramento office, adding that he hasn't been contacted by anyone from the current administration. "I'm kind of waiting and seeing."