Update: The appointment of Robin Richards to the vacant ISD 194 School Board seat took effect on December 23, 2021. The Senate District 58 GOP had previously announced that it was "actively working toward" collecting signatures for a petition to reject the appointment.
At its meeting on November 23, the ISD 194 (Lakeville) School Board voted to appoint Robin Richards to fill a vacant seat on the Board. The lone member voting against her appointment was Cinta Schmitz. Ms. Richards is a health and wellness coach who resides in Lakeville. Up until 2017 she was an administrator for Saint Paul Public Schools and she previously taught in both Chaska, Minnesota and Las Vegas, Nevada. The resume she submitted with her application is available here. Video of the November 23 Board meeting is available here. A Sun Thisweek article about the appointment process and vote is available here.
The article notes that at its November 17 special meeting during which it interviewed eight applicants, the Board further narrowed the applicants down to two finalists including Ms. Richards and Carly Anderson. Ms. Anderson narrowly lost to Ms. Schmitz in a special election that concluded earlier this month, obtaining 48.18% of the votes cast in that election, which was held to fill a separate vacancy on the Board. The article states that during the November 17 meeting, Board members Terry Lind, David Anderson, and Ms. Schmitz all expressed their inclination to support Ms. Richards rather than Ms. Anderson.
The appointment will take effect in 30 days, unless a petition to reject the appointment is filed after having been signed by at least 5% of the ISD 194 residents who voted in the most recent state general election pursuant to Minn. Stat. ยง 123B.09, subd. 5b (b). 61,279 ISD 194 residents voted in the 2020 general election. Therefore, the number of signatures needed for a successful petition to reject is 3,064.
Background Information
The ISD 194 (Lakeville) School Board announced its intent to fill a school board vacancy at its meeting on Tuesday, November 23. The vacancy occurred when Lynn Gorski resigned from the Board effective August 13, shortly after being hired as Farmington's assistant city administrator. The term of the vacant seat goes through the end of 2022.
14 people applied for the vacant seat. At a special meeting on November 16, the Board narrowed the list of applicants after reviewing their application materials with the name of each applicant redacted. On November 17 the Board interviewed eight applicants including:
Kelly Detlefsen
Carly Anderson
Robin Richards
Lisa Backer
Kimberly Baker
Jay Escobar
Sarah Lofgren
Sarah Welcome
The resumes submitted by 12 applicants with nonpublic data redacted are linked below. Laura Reinke and Laura Carder also applied for the vacant seat but did not submit a resume.