On Tuesday night, the Board interviewed thirteen people who
have expressed interest in being the replacement for the District D
vacancy. Two people withdrew; the rest
came to the Board room in 15-20 minute increments to discuss their backgrounds
and vision for the school district as well as to answer questions from the
Board.
The candidates consisted of a wide range of citizens from
within District D boundaries. I had a
great time listening to them describe their interest in education and their
responses to all of our questions.
The Board convened in executive session following the
meeting to learn of the statutory guidelines for the next steps. No candidates were discussed in this session; statute doesn't permit this, and in any case the Board wants these discussions to be fully public. The Board settled on having two additional
special meetings to accomplish three objectives: 1) ensure all discussions of
the candidates occurs in open session, for both transparency’s sake and for the
benefit of the public; 2) to nominate finalists to give the Board time to
follow up individually with candidates before the appointment process, and 3)
to appoint the new Director prior to the statutory deadline of March 16th.
The first meeting will occur on Monday the 11th. There is essentially one item on the agenda:
to nominate finalists. Board members may
choose to participate by phone if they can’t attend in person. The Board will nominate up to five finalists,
with each person nominated requiring a second.
Because of this, there may be fewer than five. Each Board member will have a chance to speak
on behalf of any of the candidates after the nominations.
The second meeting will take place on Thursday the 14th. The Board will have another chance to
interview the finalists. After that, a
vote will take place that will formally fill the vacancy. After that, the new Board member will be able
to vote with the rest of us to elect a new Vice President.
I am looking forward to the final steps in this
process. We have a very high-caliber
pool of candidates from which to choose.
I welcome input from any citizen regarding any of the candidates that
were interviewed in Tuesday night.
