Special meeting of the Board of Ed March 10: acting commissioner

 Craven: "due credit and praise" to Johnston
March 28 is his last day
finalists will be selected by board members on search committee (four)
new commissioner for July 1

Secretary Pat Tutwiler is willing and able to serve "on top of his responsibilities" as Secretary
will not accept additional compensation
Secretary makes appointment on recommendation of a 2/3rd vote
effective March 29, 2025

Motion, second

Hills: not in support of this 
think Tutwiler "would make an outstanding commissioner"
soft power, hard power
"has to do with the structure that has been set up in the laws over the past year"
"there are several different statutes that this would be in violation of"
"at some point, it actually matters what's written in the statute"

Mohamed: "if it doesn't violate statute, I think it violates principles of good governments"
"don't think a person can serve as supervisor of himself"
will vote no on this item

Tutwiler: Commissioner doesn't report to the Secretary; the Commissioner reports to the Board
(on which the Secretary serves)

Moriarty: comfortable with this and support it
"I don't think the secretary as it exists in statute is that old"
"I think it's a novel question, not one that" has a history
Johnston receiver while at the Department (but he didn't report to himself; it both positions he reported to the Commissioner)
"and if it's a mulligan, we correct it at our next meeting"

Stewart asking if it's legal for him not to take compensation

Motion to recommend to the Secretary that he appoint himself acting commissioner (the Secretary appoints upon a 2/3rd recommendation from the Board)

7-2-1, 2/3 vote as required (Hills and Mohamed opposed, Tutwiler abstains)

motion passes

No one asked me but speaking as always only for me: 

1. Serving on a Board whilst also working for it would certainly appear a conflict. 
2. Taking the second role at the same time on would appear to somewhat denigrate what is necessary for either. 
3. And having the Governor's appointment serve as the Board's appointment SUPER crosses the quasi-independence of the Department

Moving right along: Board of Ed membership

Periodically, I am asked about the length of terms of the current Board of Ed members, particularly given that we have a largely Baker-appointed Board and an ostensibly more education-friendly Governor now. While the state does have this chart, it's not fully updated, has weirdly set everything to June expiration dates (which isn't in state law), and has more than one ending date just plain wrong.

I did the first version of this post in 2017, with an update in January of last year.