Northville School Board Reschedules Superintendent Vote

Correction: The superintendent candidates were not present at the Thursday, Dec. 16, meeting.

The has rescheduled its special meeting to vote on Northville's next superintendent for next week.

The vote was scheduled for Thursday night's meeting at the district's , but one of the board members, Joe Hige, had a family emergency. The meeting has been rescheduled for Wednesday, Dec. 22, according to a districtwide e-mail that states it is "the next date all seven board members are in town, for the purpose of selecting the next Superintendent."

The two candidates are , assistant superintendent of instruction for the Northville district, and , the superintendent of Manchester Schools in Washtenaw County. They are vying to replace longtime Superintendent , who will retire at the end of the school year.

The candidates were not present at Thursday's meeting.

Board members discussed their options Thursday about the superintendent vote.

"We could go into executive session with our attorney and vote tonight or postpone the vote," Ken Roth said Thursday. He added that Hige had indicated he wanted the vote to go forward in his absence. "I think it's in our interest to move forward tonight."

Initially, the vote appeared to go in favor of proceeding Thursday night. School board members Dottie Garrity and Libby Smith indicated they intended to vote with Ken Roth and Karen Paciorek to proceed with the vote as scheduled.

"It is something that I don't see as fair to the two candidates," Paciorek said. "And we have a community hold."

Paciorek's term ends at the end of the year, and she will be retiring from the board.

But school board member expressed adamantly that she felt the choice of superintendent was too important not to include the vote of the whole board. She also said Hige might change his mind about his vote after hearing the attorney's report from the executive session that followed the vote to postpone.

After a few more exchanges about the importance of the consideration of the attorney's report, and the weight that might carry on the board's vote, Garrity and Smith indicated they would change their votes.

Wadsworth then made a motion to proceed with the vote as scheduled Thursday night. She, school board President Marilyn Price, Dottie Garrity and Secretary Libby Smith voted "no" on the motion. Paciorek and Roth voted "yes" to proceed Thursday. With the 4-2 majority voting to postpone, the board delayed the vote and proceeded with its executive session.

Wednesday's meeting is scheduled for 7 p.m. at in the athletic room, PE 102.