A majority of the Missouri State Board of Education voted Thursday to expedite the process of finding a replacement for ousted former State Education Commissioner Margie Vandeven.
The board voted 5-3 in a closed meeting Dec. 1 to remove Vandeven, who got the job after it last opened in 2014. The vote to remove her was seen by many as a political maneuver by Gov. Eric Greitens, who had been adding appointees to the board over the past year since his inauguration.
After more than an hour of discussion on a teleconference call, the board voted 5-3 on Thursday to start taking applications for the open position of commissioner today. The vote split along the same lines as the vote to fire Vandeven.
Board member Eddy Justice's motion led to the vote in favor of closing the application period Jan. 8. The vote also indicated the board would evaluate how it wants to proceed at the Jan. 9 meeting based on the applications received - whether to extend the application period or to utilize an outside search firm that would likely attract more out-of-state candidates or to select finalists for interviews.
"For discussion purposes, I will reiterate I think that is a really short timeframe to fill a position as important as the commissioner of education, and you're doing that with no input as to what qualities and traits you're looking for before the application process ends," board President Charlie Shields said.
"I would tell you it's a slap in the face to educators. It's a slap in the face to legislators. It's a slap in the face to executives over at the governor's office, if you ask for the application to go out without having gotten their input before you do it, before you start the process. It just doesn't make sense," board Vice President Victor Lenz added.
"It's not the way you would do a high level application for a high level job," Lenz added.
"Gathering their input at the same time as gathering the application - obviously we would have, if there is a huge variance between the input, then we could reevaluate at that point. And also, I agree with Eddy that the input is very valuable and could be included as part of the interview process," board member Jennifer Edwards said.
Shields added, though, the board has not been more specific about what they want from a new commissioner of education beyond the general criteria that was last used to hire Vandeven. It will only be slightly updated in the application that opens today because they have not gotten input from the stakeholders or the general public.
"How, if you were an applicant, would you know what to put in your application? How would you know what the state of Missouri is looking for in a commissioner of education?" Shields asked.
"It's now Dec. 14. Cutting off applications by Jan. 9, in the middle of the holiday season, doesn't provide the opportunity to get the absolute best candidate," he added, and the board voted immediately after.
Shields, Lenz and Michael Jones voted against the motion; Eric Teeman, Justice, Doug Russell, Sonny Jungmeyer and Edwards voted in favor.
The board later agreed to take public testimony from 2-5 p.m. Jan. 8. It also looked at doing final interviews with candidates the week of the February board meeting, if needed.