Toledo Public School board members have delayed filling the vacant seat on the five-member council.
A special meeting was initially scheduled for Monday to appoint a new board member from a list of 10 applicants but district officials abruptly scrapped that plan a day before. The seat was vacated in early December by Stephanie Eichenberg, who resigned after moving out of the district.
Board president Chris Varwig said one board member fell ill and TPS spokesman Patricia Mazur said a scheduling conflict also led to the board postponing the meeting by roughly one week.
“The Board of Education intends to hold a special meeting on Tuesday, January 4, 2022, to discuss and appoint a new member to fulfill the remaining two-year term of Mrs. Stephanie Eichenberg,” Ms. Mazur wrote in an email. “The new member would be sworn in at the Board of Education's annual Organizational Meeting on Thursday, January 6, 2022.”
A time for the meeting has not yet been announced.
The meeting postponement has put a hamper on the board’s earlier plans to quickly appoint someone to serve the remaining two years on Ms. Eichenberg’s term in office.
Ms. Varwig previously told The Blade the intent was to fast-track the process and forego candidate interviews to select the person by Monday — effectively giving them roughly 10 days to process their new role and responsibilities before being sworn in.
Now the person will have less than two days after board members make their selection.
Ms. Eichenberg resigned in early December because her family is moving out of the school district. She later told The Blade her family bought a house in Waterville, which better suits them as well that of her job that she performs at home doing market research.
Since then, the board received 10 applications for the open seat. They included two former Democrat school board members — Perry Lefevre and Rev. Randall Parker III. Elgin Rogers, Jr., a division manager Lucas County who, like Rev. Parker, serves on the Lucas County Democratic Party executive committee, also applied.
Others are Penny Tullis, who previously served as the YWCA Youth Development Director; Kamille Berry, a teacher at Robinson Elementary School; Valerie Smith, the corporate environmental health and safety specialist for The Andersons Inc.; Melvin Jackson, a financial service professional; Jeffrey Lewis, a social worker who currently works as an ambulatory care manager for Mercy Health; Tiera Taylor, a registered nurse; and Robert Worthington, who unsuccessfully ran as a 2018 candidate for District 44 Ohio House of Representatives and made two failed bids for Toledo City Council.
So far, all the school board members have opted not to publicly discuss any of the applicants, choosing instead to discuss the list behind closed doors in executive session. That means the nominations and votes to choose among the applicants will be the public’s first glimpse as to whom school board members prefer to fill the vacant seat.
Of the previous five appointments to fill board vacancies, three at least included public interviews of candidates.
That wasn’t the case in 2015 — the last time the board had to fill a vacancy because board member Cecelia Adams was appointed to Toledo City Council. During that time, much of the appointment process was held behind closed doors, with candidate interviews also held in executive session during a weekend meeting.
When the time came to vote publicly, the board was initially torn, but ended up choosing Rev. Parker. He then lost his election bid for the seat that year when Mr. Lefevre and Mrs. Eichenberg won the two open seats.
First Published December 27, 2021, 10:42 p.m.
