Chris Myers, who has run twice and lost for a seat on the Toledo Public School Board of Education, applied to fill Steve Steel’s now vacant seat – and he is offering to do the job for free.

Chris Myers

After former City Council President Mark Sobczak resigned and Councilmember Joe McNamara took his place, council appointed former TPS Board President Steven Steel to take McNamara’s seat. With only four months left of a term, Myers said he would be the best placeholder to promote transparency between parents and the board before the public elects someone in November.

He, however, does not plan to run for the upcoming election, which would allow him to carry out his goals without having to worry about campaigning like other applicants might, he added.

“I just want to provide the board this opportunity to take politics out,” Myers, who operates SwampBubbles.com, said.

Steven Flagg of the Toledo Urban Coalition said that his organization would not support anyone who applies for the position who plans to run for the seat in November.

“I think that would force a dynamic into the democratic system that is unfair to the process and unfair to voters,” Flagg said.

As Web designer for University of Michigan’s Gerald Ford School of Public Policy, Myers said that he understands the importance of integrating technology into his work and would use the internet to serve as a 24-hour connection between he and students’ parents.

He would stream any meeting he attends live on the web and would host virtual office hours with parents of TPS students, Myers said.

Myers ran in 2005 and 2007, and doesn’t know if he would ever run again but said he’s not ruling it out. For the next four months, though, he said that he would not accept any payment for the position.

He has spent most of his life working for education, teaching at the college level and in high schools in the Toledo area and in China. He is now on the board of the Frederick Douglass Community Association.

“If we don’t prepare our students for being self motivated, if we don’t prepare them to go out and do things in the world, the Toledo Public Schools will be an anchor on the area and keep dragging it down,” he said. “But if we can prepare them to be fast learners and motivated learners, the Toledo Public Schools can be an engine for Northwest Ohio.”

Flagg said that the amount of time left in the term would not allow any of the applicants to really accomplish any change. The Urban Coalition would look for someone who has experience in governmental or educational positions to serve as a placeholder until elections, he added.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 14th, 2009 at 6:38 pm and is filed under Community, Education.
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