(Memphis) One day after voting to expand the unified school board from seven to thirteen members, the Shelby County Commission is looking to an application process for the appointment of six new members.
Here’s how the county commission plans to appoint the six new members to the board.
They will take applications from anyone interested and the full board will go through each application.
Commissioner Heidi Schafer says they went through this same process when they appointed the seven unified board members last year, “We got new folks in with new ideas and a different take on what the problems are not some preconceived notion of what the problem was twenty years ago.”
After the commission whittles the pile of applications down, the applicants will come in for extensive interviews before the final six are selected.
Commissioner Steve Mulroy says there are no specific names being floated around but anyone is welcome to apply, “I`m going to look at it as a clean slate and I think most commissioners will as well this is about making sure we have full representation and neighborhood representation.”
Schafer thinks they can appoint good candidates, but she says this is all moving too fast, “We don`t even know yet whether the state is going to pass municipal schools, and it`s very possible that what we are going to do now is appoint people from the suburbs, and we will be stuck with them even if they get their own districts.”
Chairman Mike Ritz came up with the plan and says he will not try to start the appointment process until the judge approves the plan.
He expects the members to be appointed in two months.
