The commission created to address the lack of diversity on the HoCo school board is recommending that county move from seven members elected at large to five members elected by council district and two appointed members. According to this story by Joe Burris in The Sun, “It was unclear who would appoint the two members under the commission's proposal.”
Presumably that would be the county exec.
I happen to think that all seven members should be appointed. The level of scrutiny given to school board candidates is generally low. The average HoCo citizen would be hard pressed to name any of the existing board members, with the possible exception of those who are constantly in the news for dubious reasons. We are lucky that we get five who are actually worthy of the job. The running of our public school system is too important to be left to luck. A board member appointed by the exec and confirmed by the council would at least be subjected to more vetting than currently exists.
But I digress.
I fail to see how electing school board members by council district will create a more diverse board. If anything, it will shrink the available talent pool for each seat. That can't be a good thing.
Of course I never really believed that this commission was all that concerned with creating diversity anyway.
