On Dec. 19, 2022, the new Charles County Board of Education was sworn in at a ceremony at St. Charles High School. The new board expands from seven full-voting members and a student member to nine full-voting members and one student member. The new board includes Linda Warren, left, Jamila Smith, Yonelle Moore-Lee, Board Chairperson Michael “Mike” Lukas, Brenda L. Thomas, David Hancock, Nicole M. Kreamer, Cindy Coulby (who resigned in January), Dottery Butler-Washington and student board member Amira Abujuma. Also pictured is Charles public schools’ Superintendent Maria Navarro, right.
On Dec. 19, 2022, the new Charles County Board of Education was sworn in at a ceremony at St. Charles High School. The new board expands from seven full-voting members and a student member to nine full-voting members and one student member. The new board includes Linda Warren, left, Jamila Smith, Yonelle Moore-Lee, Board Chairperson Michael “Mike” Lukas, Brenda L. Thomas, David Hancock, Nicole M. Kreamer, Cindy Coulby (who resigned in January), Dottery Butler-Washington and student board member Amira Abujuma. Also pictured is Charles public schools’ Superintendent Maria Navarro, right.
Nearly 10 months after former Charles County Board of Education member Cindy Coulby stepped down from her post, the school board is finally one step closer to filling the vacant seat.
The board announced on Oct. 5 the seven candidates that will be interviewed for the currently open District 1 seat on Oct. 20 at the Jesse L. Starkey Administration Building in La Plata.
While the board will finally have the opportunity to fill a seat left empty at the very beginning of the new term, the decision also places an individual on the board that will ultimately be chosen by board members themselves and not by District 1 voters.
“No matter what decision we make, it’s not going to be fair to the residents of District 1 because everyone else here was actually elected by their district, including me,” school board member David Hancock told Southern Maryland News.
Hancock added that he would reach out to members of District 1 to get the best input possible on making a decision.
Among interviewees will be former board member Jennifer Abell, a La Plata resident who served on the Charles County school board for 18 years before stepping away in 2022.
Zach Ball, a Hughesville native and former candidate for the District 1 seat in 2022, tossed his hat back into the ring for the interview process.
Ball told Southern Maryland News during the campaign that he wanted to serve on the board in order to “advocate for those passionate about strengthening the school system and give teachers the resources they need to focus on their calling — the students.”
Fellow Hughesville native and former District 1 candidate Samichie Thomas was also selected as an interview finalist.
During the 2022 election, Thomas advanced to the general election in the five-candidate race and was less than 1,000 votes short of supplanting Coulby as the second District 1 rep, while Ball was 150 votes short of replacing Thomas on the general election ballot.
Other candidates include Mark Attucks, Shellee Stine, Christina Vigorito and Sonja Davis-Black.
The chosen candidate would effectively serve an entire term, as Coulby left office shortly after the board’s first official meeting in January following her election last November.
All of the interviews are open to the public, with the first interview starting at 8 a.m. and the final interview starting at 1 p.m.
While the interviews will not be live streamed, they will be reposted to the Charles County Public Schools’ YouTube channel.
