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The Henrico School Board has whittled 11 applicants for the Tuckahoe District seat on the board down to three, each of whom the current four-person board will interview during a closed session tomorrow. Board members then will decide how many of the three candidates will advance to a 4 p.m. public hearing Sept. 13 at New Bridge Auditorium and will release their names "as soon as possible, once those determinations are made," Henrico Schools spokesman Andy Jenks told the Citizen in an e-mail.
The 11 applicants included eight men and three women, but the genders of each finalist are unknown. Though the school system has chosen not to name the applicants, the Freedom of Information Act does not mandate that those names be kept private, Virginia Coalition for Open Government Executive Director Megan Rhyne said.
But, Jenks said, school system officials are keeping the names private anyway because they consider the applications exempt from disclosure as personnel records.
"Once individuals advance to the public hearing, then we’re obligated to release those names," Jenks wrote.
The board similarly did not release the names of applicants for the division's superintendent position earlier this year, though in that case the board was working with the Virginia School Board Association, which makes confidentiality a requirement of its searches.
In Rhyne's estimation, there is another key difference in the two positions.
"Unlike the superintendent – the position that carries out the board’s policies and is directly accountable to the board – the board members are directly accountable to the public," Rhyne told the Citizen. "This new person will be making decisions in the name of the citizens of Henrico. It is in the public’s best interest to know the qualifications of the people seeking to represent them.
"The voters of the district have already lost the representative to the board they chose, and now they will not have any idea of who will represent them until the board has weeded down a list of individuals whose backgrounds, names and qualifications are unknown."
Longtime Tuckahoe District member Lisa Marshall resigned last month to continue her battle against breast cancer.
Board members expect to choose an interim member at their Sept. 20 meeting, and their selection will join the board in time for its Sept. 27 meeting. The interim member will serve through next year – nearly as long as an interim appointee is legally permitted to serve, according to Virginia code. Had Marshall's resignation occurred about two weeks earlier, it would have triggered a requirement for a special election to be held in conjunction with the Nov. 6 general election this year.
But because her resignation came within 90 days of the general election, the special election wouldn't have been held until next November. Since the entire board will be up for election then, the need for a special election would be negated.
The past two times a seat on the board became vacant, board members sought to appoint interim members who did not plan to seek the seat on a permanent basis. But Board Chairwoman Micky Ogburn has indicated that will not be the case this time.
During each of the two earlier occasions, the interim appointees both decided to seek election anyway, though neither made it onto the ballot.
