Press Editorial
November 4, 2008
By Administrator
Board appointment was thorough and open
Congratulations to Chad Magendanz, chosen last week by Issaquah School Board members to fill a board vacancy. The five applicants for the seat — left vacant by the resignation of Mike Winkler — were all
outstanding. There wasn’t one in the bunch who would not have been a competent board member. Each brought a different background, but each would have been a positive addition to the five-member board. Issaquah is truly lucky to have such talent step up to volunteer for an arduous job.
Congratulations also to the four school board members who made the selection in a thorough, open and expeditious manner.
The board interviewed the candidates in an open forum and welcomed questions from the public. A podcast of the interviews was posted on the district’s Web site. Twice, the board met in executive session to evaluate and discuss the choices, but kept the closed-door time to a minimum. After narrowing the field to the top two contenders, a special meeting was called to make the final decision, so the new board member could begin as soon as possible. The final vote was taken in public, with each board member taking time to share the reasoning behind his or her ultimate choice.
The Issaquah School Board put to rest the arguments of those other government agencies that whine about the difficulty of making candidate choices in public. The members respected the law that calls for a public decision and went out of their way to let the public in on the proceedings by using a podcast and public questions.
Bravo for a job well done!
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