Madison School Board Vice President Lawrie Kobza announced Monday that she won’t seek re-election, and retired teacher Marj Passman immediately jumped into the race to succeed her.
Kobza’s move guarantees that the board will gain two new members in the April 1 election.
“I’ve very much appreciated the opportunity to serve on the School Board, but I have a number of other personal and professional interests which I would like to explore and I just need more time in the week to do so,” Kobza wrote in an e-mail to Board President Arlene Silveira, schools Superintendent Art Rainwater and reporters.
Kobza, a lawyer, will leave the board after serving a single three-year term.
Madison School Board Vice President Lawrie Kobza announced this morning that she will not seek re-election in next spring’s School Board race.
Elected to her first term on the board in 2005, Kobza joins longtime board member Carol Carstensen in announcing that she will not run again.
In an e-mail this morning, Kobza said she has a number of personal and professional interests that she hopes to explore and needs the time to do so.
Two candidates, Marj Passman and Ed Hughes, have announced that they will seek slots on the seven-member School Board.
Thank you, Lawrie, for caring and trying.
Ed
I hope you change your mind, Lawrie. Any chance of this?
It is unfortunate but true that when you join a school board with the intention of being a change agent–and not merely a rubber stamp for the administration or union–it becomes an especially thankless, burnout experience. The constant circle of wagons can get anyone down.
Especially when the very people who stood behind you as an agent for change spout nonsense like:
“It’s just that you, Lawrie, and Maya have just been such disappointments, being as weak vis-as-vis the administration as the cheerleaders you replaced.”
I happen to think Lawrie was very successful, particularly in matters regarding the budget, but also in forcing the Board and administration to flesh out details in any number of things. She has truly looked out for the best interests of the district, even when those interests might have conflicted with the interests of her own geographical area.
I agree that this is a huge loss. I have been so impressed with Lawrie’s contributions to the Board and the community.
It’s not that she agrees with everything I already think, which is a shallow way of judging someone in office. It’s that her comments are insightful, she works hard, and inquires deeply: when I read her quoted in the paper, I usually learn something new about an issue. Even when I haven’t been sure I agreed with her, I have been impressed with her knowledge, integrity, and precise way of expressing herself. I think she is one of the highest quality members of the BOE I have seen since we moved to Madison in 1993. Her combination of skills is rare.
I’m sorry not to be able to vote for her again.
Thanks, Lawrie!