Last night was the first meeting of the new board, which is now only three members, Beth Hunkapiller, new Board member Adam Rak, and myself. Two seats were vacated as both Carrie Du Bois and Mark Olbert won election to other positions in the middle of their terms. The board had the option of either calling for a special election or kicking off a process to appoint people to fill the vacancies. At last night’s meeting, the overwhelming consensus was to do the latter.
Although there are certainly arguments for running a special election (including having the public decide and avoiding “unearned incumbency”), we have to balance all of the pros and cons, and above all need to be practical. When one starts to think through all of the issues, it became clear that holding a special election just isn’t practical for a number of reasons.
First and foremost in my mind is the time frame. We couldn’t have an election until May, which means the board members wouldn’t be seated until June. That is just not acceptable. The board would be near non-functional if it had to have only three members for six months. All decisions would have to be unanimous, which would mean it would make it difficult to accomplish important things and/or squash differing opinions in order to get work done. Wouldn’t that defeat the very point of having varying voices on the board? Also as a practical matter, we could not even meet if someone were to get sick or be traveling as we would lack a quorum. As we all know, there is much to accomplish in the next six months, including addressing our facility challenges, having the conversations around 21st Century Learning, and of course dealing with the inevitable budget challenges. Would we want less than five committed people devoted to making these decisions?
Also, the cost of a special election would be significant. We’d have to spend the equivalent of a teacher’s yearly salary to do this. Is this a prudent use of taxpayer dollars? This has clearly been the issue for the community, as the feedback I have gotten from parents and other community members over the last two months has been overwhelming — there is near unanimous support for doing an appointment, largely because of this issue of cost. It’s unfathomable for most parents in particular to spend this money that effectively gets diverted from their child’s education.
The good news is that we have lots of interest from very qualified people — it is illustrative of the fact that this process is working, and if anything we have been extremely open about this process and discussing it since last August. If anything, the Board has chosen the more difficult path for itself — it will actually be quite the challenge for us to choose among many very qualified candidates. Like all decisions with this three-member board, such appointments would have to be unanimous — a perfect illustration of how difficult it would be to the business of the district if every decision had to be made this way.
The District encourages anyone interested to apply. Details about the process and the application form can be found on the District website. Applications are due January 9th and the school board will have presentations from, and questions to, applicants, at its meeting on January 12th.
School board members have agreed to a “quiet period” and not to talk to potential candidates before the decision is made so as to not to bias the process in any way. However, interested candidates can certainly reach out to the Superintendent or former board members to learn about the role and the time commitment.
