The Fredericksburg City School Board received four impressive resumes for its vacant Ward 3 seat.
“They were all very good and could serve in their own right,” school board chair Matt Rowe said Monday, during a special meeting that lasted just 23 minutes. “We just had to choose someone.”
Ultimately, experience proved to be the differentiating factor. The school board arrived at a consensus to appoint Elizabeth Rehm, a former three-term school board member, to serve out the roughly three months of Jen Boyd’s term.
Rehm, a former Ward 1 representative, will be sworn in at the beginning of the Oct. 6 school board meeting and will serve through Dec. 31. The Ward 3 seat is up for grabs in November’s election, with Sarah Stelmok and Annie Langdon vying to fill it. School board members said previously that they wouldn’t support either candidate for the interim appointment.
After Boyd announced her resignation two weeks ago, the division advertised the opening and posted application materials on the school website.
“There has been no closed-door session,” Rowe said, adding that the school board didn’t hold interviews due to the compressed timeframe and duration of the appointment.
“It keeps us in a safe position,” school board member Jarvis Bailey said of selecting Rehm. “I’m glad she applied, because without her, we’d be into it… We have three very qualified applicants and no process.”
School board member Molly McFadden (at-large) said she also seriously considered Caitie Finlayson, a University of Mary Washington professor, for the vacancy. She praised the “diverse perspectives” offered by all four applicants.
“I mean, in two years you’ve got two at-large spots up [for election],” McFadden said. “I hope that we see these names again.”
