Stories indexed with the term ‘board opening’

AAPS Board Interviews Go Back and Forth

On March 8, eight candidates vying for the one open seat on the Ann Arbor Public Schools (AAPS) board of education dutifully answered the questions asked of them. But they also took advantage of the boilerplate board query at the close of each interview: “Do you have any questions for us?”

And questions from candidates led board members to hold forth on their personal motivations for serving the district, define what they see as the “new normal” in terms of school funding, and admit how challenging it can be for new board members to get up to speed.

The interview questions were written by the board’s executive committee, and approved by the board as a whole. Candidates discussed their backgrounds and motivations; their familiarity with AAPS; their commitment to diversity; cost and revenue options currently being considered in the draft budget; thoughts on the district’s greatest asset and how to leverage it; their ability to support board decisions with which they disagreed; balancing community input with public service; and the time commitments of being a board member.

After all interviews were concluded, the board reviewed its candidate selection process, and adopted a revision to their voting process. The new process is intended to increase the potential for consensus on candidate selection. This new voting process will be used to select the new board member at the next regular board meeting on Wednesday, March 10, after which the new member will be immediately sworn in and seated. [Full Story]