Posted on: Saturday, May 7, 2005
Business consultant to fill vacancy on BOE
| • | Lingle objects to union restrictions |
By Derrick DePledge
Advertiser Capitol Bureau
Gov. Linda Lingle has named Paul Vierling, a business consultant, to a Windward slot on the state Board of Education.
Vierling has been a volunteer for the state Parent Teacher Student Association and serves on a committee that is reviewing a school spending formula scheduled to take effect in the 2006-07 school year.
Vierling replaces Laura H. Thielen, who resigned from the school board after being appointed by the governor as director of the state Office of Planning. Thielen was the main advocate on the board for the governor's failed proposal to break up the state Department of Education into local school districts with elected school boards.
Vierling will serve the rest of Thielen's term, which expires in 2006.
At a news conference yesterday announcing his appointment, he indicated that he shares Lingle's view that governance should be closer to individual schools, and that more money and resources should reach the classroom. But he said he is driven to improve public education for his daughters, including one who attends 'Aikahi Elementary School in Kailua.
"These two young children fire, fire my passion for involvement in education," Vierling said, as his daughters clung shyly to this leg.
Lingle said she was looking for someone who had a child in public school and could bring that perspective to the school board. Breene Harimoto, the board's chairman, is the only other member with a child in public school.
"That was one of my own characteristics that I felt was important, that it be a parent who deals with schools on a daily basis, who deals with other parents, who deals with teachers," Lingle said.
The school board has 13 elected members and one nonvoting student member.
Reach Derrick DePledge at ddepledge@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8070.
