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) |