We asked members of the community to question why the board skipped the regular rotation of leadership. It came to our attention that Board President Scott Clifthorne was sharing a table of board leadership for the past 15 years, showing many shifts from the usual rotation of leadership, and said that Vice President Tourtellotte-Palumbo was chosen due to being the only person on the board that had not been in a leadership role.
To be clear, the precedent set by the school board in choosing board leadership is to
- Defer to the ROTATION of districts 1 through 5
- TIME served on the board prior to leadership appointment
- Even REPRESENTATION of district leadership
- Extenuating CIRCUMSTANCES, such as medical emergencies, directors stepping down mid-term, directors not seeking re-election
We felt this table was misleading, and did not explain why 4/5 of the board chose to skip over Director Flores’ appointment to vice president, and how this precedent will affect future appointments.
Below is the table that has been shared in context.
| Director term start in parenthesis next to their first appearance in leadership. District numbers are color-coded | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| YEAR | President | Vice President | Consideration | |
| 2010 | Frank Wilson, District 1 December 2007) | Allen Miller, District 2 (2008 appointment) | Rotation | |
| 2011 | Allen Miller, District 2 | Mark Campeau, District 5 (2008 appointment) | Rotation, Time, Representation | |
| 2012 | Mark Campeau, District 5 | Eileen Thomson, District 3 (December 2009) | Rotation | |
| 2013 | Eileen Thomson, District 3 | Justin Montermini, District 4 (December 2011) | Rotation, Time, Representation | |
| 2014 | Frank Wilson, District 1 | Justin Montermini, District 4 | Rotation, Circumstances | |
| 2015 | Justin Montermini, District 4 | Allen Miller, District 2 | Rotation | |
| 2016 | Mark Campeau, District 5 | Eileen Thomson, District 3 | Rotation, Circumstances | |
| 2017 | Eileen Thomson, District 3 | Frank Wilson, District 1 | Rotation | |
| 2018 | Frank Wilson, District 1 | Joellen Wilhelm, District 2 (December 2015) | Rotation, Time, Representation, Circumstances | |
| 2019 | Joellen Wilhelm, District 2 | Scott Clifthorne, District 5 (December 2017) | Rotation, Time, Representation | |
| 2020 | Hilary Seidel, District 4 (2017 appointment) | Scott Clifthorne, District 5 | Rotation, Circumstances | |
| 2021 | Scott Clifthorne, District 5 | Maria Flores, District 1 (December 2019) | Rotation | |
| 2022 | Maria Flores, District 1 | Justin McKaughan, District 2 (December 2019) | Darcy Huffman, District 3 (December 2021) | Rotation, Time, Representation, Circumstances |
| 2023 | Darcy Huffman, District 3 | Hilary Seidel, District 4 | Rotation | |
| 2024 | Hilary Seidel, District 4 | Scott Clifthorne, District 5 | Rotation | |
| 2025 | Scott Clifthorne, District 5 | Jess Tourtellotte-Palumbo, District 2 (December 2023) | ||