State board of education members began interviewing candidates on Thursday to fill vacancies on the Baltimore school board, a position receiving heightened scrutiny after the disclosure of financial problems and fraud allegations concerning the former city board chairman who took and then quit a high-paying schools job last week.
Three of the candidates have been supported by city schools chief Andr?s Alonso.
Alonso had recently created an unadvertised $175,000-a-year deputy CEO position for former city board chairman Brian D. Morris, but Morris stepped away from the job Saturday after revelations of his 15-year history of legal and financial problems. The disclosures raised questions about the way city school board candidates are vetted.
This week, the state board's chairman, James DeGraffenreidt, said the interviews were the beginning of a slow and deliberative process. He said the board would meet next week in private session to discuss whether to change the current process of vetting candidates and would then make public what the process would be.
The candidates whose names are before the board include Lisa Akchin, head of marketing and public relations at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County; LaTina Burse Greene, deputy associate commissioner for personnel at the Social Security Administration; and Tina Hike-Hubbard, senior program director at Enterprise Community Partners, a national nonprofit that develops affordable housing.
Alonso said he knows Akchin and Hike-Hubbard through their work in the community and has had discussions with them. He said he supported Greene because she showed interest and support and seemed to have strong qualifications. The city school board is appointed jointly by the governor and the mayor, and has the authority to hire and fire system CEOs. Alonso is entering his third year on the job.
"Every new board member potentially changes the alchemy of a board. This board has been remarkably cohesive and strong, and it is in the interest of the work I do to keep it that way," Alonso said.
In the past, the state board has advertised for city school board vacancies, collected the names, interviewed candidates and then passed on a list of qualified applicants to the mayor and governor.
But neither the state board, the governor nor the mayor has believed they carried the responsibility for vetting the candidates. DeGraffenreidt said the board would look at the issue.
