Taking a page from the U.S. House of Representatives, it took 15 rounds of voting for the Ann Arbor School Board to elect a new president.
After about two hours of voting, Jacinda Townsend Gides was chosen to lead the seven-member board. After 11 rounds of identical results, some movement started to happen.
Trustee Krystle DuPree changed her vote to Townsend Gides in Round 15 to end the impasse with the three other candidates.
Townsend Gides has equity and collaboration within the board at the top of her priority list as president. She says she appreciates Trustee DuPree for moving the board forward.
“And I hope that I can be that person as the board president, then I can help people sort of move forward and disabuse the public of the idea that we have these factions on the board because I think we’re all trying to work collectively to make everything better.”
Townsend Gides faced criticism for being new to the area. She moved here about two years ago with her family from Bloomington, Indiana. She took a job at the University of Michigan, where she teaches creative writing.
Non-commercial, fact based reporting is made possible by your financial support. Make your donation to WEMU todayto keep your community NPR station thriving.
Like 89.1 WEMU on Facebook and follow us on Twitter
Contact WEMU News at734.487.3363 or email us at studio@wemu.org