Between election day and the first board meeting of the new board there is a lot of behind-the-scenes in-fighting going on over who will be the new board chair (prior to the policy governance reforms, president). This can get nasty. In fact in the 1980's and early '90's it would take several ballots to elect a president. A lot of feelings were hurt and a lot of deals were made. It got so bad that at some point in the '90's before I joined the board in 1997, the school board came together and decided to create a pecking order based on seniority and rotate the presidency and vice presidency annually based on this pecking order. I really did not like that. Not every board members is cut out to be president/chair.
Well, beginning in 2001 the board lost a lot of its continuity and traditions due to so many incumbents losing at the polls. The pecking order was one of those traditions that was lost/forgotten. It is back to the rough and tumble days of yesteryear!
Two members of the board really want to be chair: Ginny Strong and Teree Caldwell-Johnson. Trouble is, neither has the 4 votes necessary to win. Paradoxically, a third board member can easily count on 4, maybe 5 votes, but this board member doesn't really want the job.
Strong is the current board chair, and she wants a second term. A second consecutive term would be unprecedented or as an old lawyer might say, has not happened since the mind of man runneth not to the contrary. She has done a fine job as chair and understands Policy Governance better than any other board member, but apparently the manner in which she runs the board meetings, particularly in the last couple of months, has rubbed a lot of board members the wrong way.
Caldwell-Johnson also wants the job, but it is unclear why. It is a hell of a lot of work. But her candidacy is not gaining any traction primarily because her fellow board members don't think she deserves the job. In essence she has done nothing to earn it. And they don't like how she is unprepared for board meetings, tends to grandstand, and ducks the tough votes.
Ducking examples include abstaining on the Policy Governance vote on 11/20/07, abstaining on the code of conduct vote on 6/2/09, and suddenly finding a conflict of interest over the Rice property after voting in favor of selling the property. The biggest of all, and the one that might really sting the board members was her "No" vote on the censure of Narcisse on 9/16/08, claiming that everything in the censure was not in the public record; a claim that I understand not to be true.
Her pass on Policy Governance is particularly interesting because she claims it was due to the fact that she had not had time to talk to Iowa City board members about their experience with it. The Des Moines board had at that time been working on Policy Governance for 11 months.
These sorts of votes don't sit well with your colleagues. I am sure the other board members are wondering what sort of leader she would be in light of these votes.
It should be an interesting Tuesday night, unless the third candidate with the votes there for the asking steps up and takes the Chair.
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