Five candidates will be considered for the latest opening on the Ann Arbor Board of Education.
They include: James Corey of Gabrielle Avenue; Victoria Haviland of Greenview Drive; Noah Hurwitz of Cambridge; Jack Panitch of Burson Place; and Andy Thomas of West Stadium Blvd. Four of the five applied for previous board openings in recent months; Hurwitz did not, although he ran for the school board in 2003.
Visit this site for links to application materials for each candidate.
The board will interview candidates at 6:30 p.m. Thursday, May 6 in the main conference room at the Balas Administration Building, 2555 S. State St., and will hear oral statements from all candidates at the regular May 12 Board of Education meeting at the Ann Arbor District Library beginning at 7 p.m. The board is expected to appoint and seat a candidate that evening.
The person selected to fill the seat vacated by Randy Friedman will serve through year’s end. If the person wishes to continue in the post, he or she will have to run for the seat in November.
Friedman, who was serving as board treasurer, resigned his seat April 12 citing personal reasons. His was the third seat to open on the Ann Arbor board in recent months. Trustees Helen Gates-Bryant and Adam Hollier also resigned their seats and were replaced by trustees Simone Lightfoot and Christine Stead, respectively.
Voters will next go to the polls to elect board members in November, when five of the board’s seven seats will be open including those of the new trustee to be appointed in May as well as trustees Lightfoot, Stead and Susan Baskett and current board President Deb Mexicotte. The deadline for filing to run for one of the seats is Aug. 10, 2010.
The Ann Arbor school board voted last December to move traditional school elections from May to November in a money-saving move. All board terms now run in a January through December calendar year.
