In MoreThanTheCurve.com‘s recent article about the Colonial School Board’s appointment of Rasheda Randall to fill the vacant seat resulting from Dr. Jamina Clay’s resignation, it was noted that the board had not responded to questions poised by MoreThanTheCurve.com regarding Randall’s appointment.

MoreThanTheCurve.com received the below statement from the board on December 21st. The statement is from all nine members.

The Colonial School District Board of Directors held public interviews on Dec. 18 for residents interested in volunteering to fill a vacancy left following the resignation of Dr. Jamina Clay. Nine candidates applied and attended the public meeting to answer a series of questions drafted by Board members.

The nine candidates came from a variety of backgrounds and all expressed a common interest in serving the students, staff and faculty, and community of the school district. Following the question-and-answer period, the Board convened a special meeting to hold discussion about the candidates and make nominations.

During the meeting, Board members nominated five of the candidates for consideration: Elizabeth MacNeal, Rasheda Randall, Liam McGinnis, Tomas Santiago, and Dr. Bukola Ogunkua. Once the nomination period was closed, the eight school directors held a lengthy discussion and voted a series of four times until one of the five nominated candidates received at least five votes. That candidate was Rasheda Randall. 

She will fill out the remainder of the open term, which ends in December 2025. To watch the meeting and some of the Board members’ discussions related to the selection process, please click here. 

Since the meeting, Board members have received comments from residents that support and those that oppose Ms. Randall’s appointment. The Board values the comments and views of its constituents, and is always open to listening to community concerns and attempting to address them, wherever possible.

To that end, we would like to share that we have already met with local synagogue leaders. We did this following Dr. Clay’s resignation, and have scheduled another meeting in light of this week’s events. The purpose of these meetings is for administrators and Board members to listen to concerns and to work with our local religious leaders collaboratively to develop ways to support students and staff. Ms. Randall has indicated she is eager to join these discussions. We look forward to collaborating with her and with our local community leaders to facilitate discussion, address concerns, and to work toward unity.

The statement does not offer answers to the questions poised by MoreThanTheCurve.com, which were whether the five members who voted for Randall knew about her interview with NBC10 in which she stated that she did not have an issue with the social media post made by Dr. Clay regarding Israel’s response to the Hamas terror attacks on October 7th and whether the entire board felt she could effectively serve on the board.

More to come.