73° F
Schools
Resignation sparks petition drive for Reed to fill Eanes school board vacancy
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
|
|
13
Editor’s note: In posting the latest version of this story, we accidentally deleted the previous posting that included comments from readers. We have been able to restore the comments originally posted. As always, we appreciate any and all feedback and welcome comments on any of our stories.
By Dane Anderson, Staff Writer
Hundreds of people have signed an online petition asking the Eanes school board to appoint former candidate Sharman Reed of Rollingwood to the board seat being vacated by Gail King, according to ipetitions.com.
“Sharman Reed was a candidate for election in our last school board election and has demonstrated both the will to serve as a trustee and the experience as a parent and an extraordinarily involved past volunteer in EISD,” the petition states.
Included among the names on the petition are Mayor Dale Dingley of Rollingwood, Mayor Dave Claunch of West Lake Hills, former booster club presidents and Westbank Community Library Director Beth Wheeler Fox. The list of petitioners, which grew to 375 by 5 p.m. Tuesday, also contains the names of parents who have spoken out against current board policy toward special needs students, freedom of information and class sizes.
Dingley said saving taxpayers the cost of a special election made sense to him in this situation.
“Sharman ran in the previous election and was a viable candidate,” he said. “If we didn’t have someone who made a strong candidate, I would say, ‘By all means, go ahead and have a special election.’ But we do have a qualified person interested. Let’s forgo the expense in this case.”
Board members placed an action item related to the King’s resigned seat on the June 17 board meeting agenda. In assigning a replacement for King, who will be moving with her family to Virginia in August, board members have a choice of appointing an interim replacement to serve until the next school board election in May or holding a special election to fill the seat.
Board president Jim Strickland said Tuesday that school board members will likely discuss King’s resignation Wednesday and how they will fill the vacant seat.
“If we were to appoint a replacement rather than decide to hold a special election, I personally would look for someone with a serious interest in our schools,” Strickland said. “We would have to look at the overall talent, experience and skill sets of people that express an interest in the position.”
Strickland said he hadn’t seen a copy of King’s resignation letter as of Monday and is not certain when it will be effective.
“Obviously, I am sad to see her go,” he said. “I will miss her greatly from the perspective of the board and personally.”
Strickland said about how the board will choose the new member is tabled until Wednesday’s meeting.
“If board members decided to appoint a replacement, I would think we would want to pick someone with the same general philosophy as the majority of the board so that we can keep moving forward in the direction we are going,” he said.
King served on the Eanes school board since May 2003, acting as vice president since May 2007. She won an unopposed re-election to a third term on the board last month.
Sharman Reed ran against incumbent Paul Stone in the same election. Stone won re-election to a third term by a vote count of 1,627 to 1,051.
Why have all the previous comments been removed? Will the Picayune restore them please?
Shouldn’t the board appoint an individual who has the right mix of skills, regardless of whether they ran in the recent election?
It disturbs me that the school board president says that a board appointment would be chosen based on whether that person shares the “philosophy of the board.” Shouldn’t an appointment share the “philosophy” of the voters he or she represents?
The online petition now shows over 300 people find it rational that EISD spend money on students and not elections of choice. However, if Mr. Strickland’s quote is accurate, it would appear that he already has a person in mind who will do what he wants done. That should not be allowed to happen. Trustees, if you won’t appoint Sharman, please hold a special election. The voters and students of EISD can’t take another board member who ignores them.
I think the fact that Sharman has been gathering 100 signatures per day, including several people who supported her opponent in the recent election, demonstrates that she has wide spread support and the confidence of the community. Given that so many of our friends and neighbors are out of town (as evidenced in our grocery stores and roads), this is pretty phenomenal. I trust that this board will listen to this outpouring of support and select a true representative of this community to join them.
This really concerns me. This isn’t like hiring a staff member. School board members are supposed to be democratically chosen to represent taxpayers of a public entity. It really disturbs me that the board spokesman said he wants to choose someone who shares “the board’s philosophy.” I didn’t know boards have a “philosophy.” I thought they were supposed to be monitors for the public trust.
More than 500 taxpayers have signed the petition , indicating their belief that Ms. Reed not only took the initiative to campaign for a school board seat, but exhibits the ‘right mix of skills’ to move Eanes ISD forward in a manner that will re-establish a board that functions with integrity and in collaboration with all members of our community. Her record as an involved parent in our schools and a leader in Austin is exemplary! What more could we want?
I would agree with David Perkins except that if the trustees are allowed to appoint someone, we, the public, have NO WAY to assess that individual’s mix of skills, where as in the case of Sharman Reed, we have. If we don’t appoint Sharman, then we definitely need a special election, because it is not reasonable for Mr. Strickland to appoint someone that shares his philosophy. We need someone who shares the public’s philosophy
I agree. There is no more reason to pick someone based on a petition than there is to pick someone based on Mr. Strickland’s philosophy. The pick should be based on interviews of the interested candidates and to chose whomever is best for the job and for the school district, and not based on local board politics, be that Sharman or someone else. We don’t elect school board members by petition, and circulating a petition only obfuscates the issues by trying to stampeed the school board into going along with whomever is the loudest.
It seems the democratic process has vanished in the Eanes community. Actions speak louder than words, and hundreds of voters spoke through their actions in signing a petition supporting the appointment of Sharman Reed to the EISD Board of Trustees. Three trustees were loud and proud in their vote to ignore the wishes of those who elected them to serve. It wasn’t the board who suffered from a stampede last evening, rather it was they who crushed their constituents through their actions.
No, the petition shows the board that the public isn’t going to sit back while Jim Strickland finds a way to appoint a seat-warmer. The petition is a message to the board that this process must be transparent and that hundreds are watching. It is an answer to Jim Strickland’s philosophy that any new board member should agree with him.
It’s interesting that only one person ran against an incumbent for school board in an election held just a few weeks ago but for some reason the board seems to think it’s more democratic to have people apply for the job. Any school board trustee should have to go through the process of campaigning so the voters can meet them.
I’ll bet that the superintendent chooses the replacement from her “best friend of the principal” list. The board will say okay. Just the opposite of democracy. (It’s their “general philosophy” as Strickland would say.)