After several years of upheaval in Adams County School District 50 under now retired Superintendent Roberta Selleck weÕve came full circle after Vicky Marshall resigned last week as president of the school board.
In an even more startling move was the subsequent election of Marilyn Flachman as the new board president. You’ll recall Marilyn and Sharon Whitehair were always in the minority on the school board and on the losing end of happenings under Superintendent Selleck’s heavy hand.
I’m suspicious
So why don’t I feel elated about the change? What is the motive behind this sudden changing of the guard? Will Marshall, who now stays on in the vice president position, eventually phase out entirely? Or will Marshall (behind the scenes and with Selleck’s meddling) orchestrate a three-some slate of new candidates for the November election? All Marilyn and her supporter have to do is elect one new person while the opposition has to elect all three new members to gain control of the board.
How it happened
Marilyn had no prior knowledge of what was to come as she was traveling in the Holy Land. But she knew something was about to happen when she saw the agenda included on ‘election of officers’ item at the special board meeting.
It was board member Kevin Massey who made the motion to elect Sharon Whitehair as president. However, Sharon declined and in an executive session Marilyn was elected president. Since it was done by secret ballot we don’t know which of the Selleck three-some supported a vote for Marilyn.
Why?
But even more suspicious is why the change is taking place now. Granted hiring Pam Swanson as interim superintendent a few months back maybe made it harder for Vicky Marshall to do SelleckÕs bidding, or, maybe Vicky saw the handwriting on the wall when at spring break the vast majority of principals and administrators signed a letter demanding SelleckÕs resignation.
Still angry
I’m still angry with that board three-some who gave Selleck a contract renewal which we now have to honor to the tune of $289,000 to get rid of her. Her home, listed by none other than Kevin Massey, is up for sale and Selleck is job shopping.
Unfortunately $289,000 is a ton of money but necessary for the transition process to take place.
Meanwhile
The coming months will tell if Vicky Marshall is sincere about letting the process work with an orderly transition.
Is this whole change being done for other reasons? Time will tell and those of us who welcome the change will be vigilant in making sure shenanigans will not mar the November election outcome.
Meanwhile we need good board candidates who only have the interests of the students and our community at heart. Stay tuned, this one is definitely worth watching closely.
Stay well, stay involved and stay tuned.
Vi June is past Democratic state representative for House District 35. She is a former mayor of Westminster and a former newspaper publisher. A Westminster resident for more than four decades, she and her husband, Bob, have five grown children and eight grandchildren.