Spokane Public Schools Board interviews three finalists for vacated seat
Oct. 17—The Spokane Public Schools board convened again Thursday to interview three finalists to fill the seat vacated by Melissa Bedford in August.
The four school board members interviewed finalists Kate Telis, former attorney and Democratic campaigner; Luke Tolley, director of community engagements at the Arc of Spokane and longtime neighborhood leader in northeast Spokane; and Nicole Bishop, philanthropy manager at Spokane Neighborhood Action Partners.
The board asked each three specific questions: their favorite component in the district's strategic plan, how they would respond to parent complaints and what they saw as the most controversial issue in public education.
Each finalist shared the common thread of garnering community feedback before changes at the district, through listening sessions with flexible timing so they could gather diverse voices.
The board will deliberate once more before selecting one of the three, as the three-month deadline approaches. Board members plan to select a candidate at a special session before the regular board meeting on Wednesday and will swear in the new member at the next meeting Nov. 6 before the Nov. 15 deadline.
Elena Perry's work is funded in part by members of the Spokane community via the Community Journalism and Civic Engagement Fund. This story can be republished by other organizations for free under a Creative Commons license. For more information on this, please contact our newspaper's managing editor.
