From the Journal Star:

District 150 School Board Vice President Linda Butler was elected Friday as president of the board, which again passed over longtime member Martha Ross.

Ross has been on the School Board for nine years, longer than any other member. After Friday’s 4-2 vote, she said the practice of selecting a board president was “unfair” and “biased.”

“We as a board are supposed to model how we want our children to perform. We want our children to treat each other fairly … but yet I really feel that is not what is happening with this board and it is a personal feeling that I have not been treated fairly for whatever reason,” Ross said during the meeting, adding that “it has the appearance in this community as being discriminatory and biased.” […]

“I’m not upset because I know who I am as a person and I know what I’ve contributed to this community in the last 30 years,” she said, later adding “but If there was a spirit of fairness, I would’ve had my turn.”

I think it’s painfully clear that the other board members simply do not have confidence in Martha Ross as a leader. There may have been some question over whether this was race-based in the past, but given that the last two superintendents the board has hired have been black, and now the new school board president is black, I really don’t see how that argument holds water.

I don’t see anything in the school code that says the board is obligated to elect as president the member with the most seniority. I don’t see anything in the school code that says every board member is guaranteed a turn as president. All the school code says is, “The president of the board of education shall be elected by the members thereof from among their number and serve for 2 years…” (105 ILCS 5/10-13).

If fairness is defined as “conformity with rules or standards,” then this election was fair. If Ross believes that every board member should have a “turn,” then she should take her beef to the state legislature and lobby for a change in the school code. But calling your fellow board members biased, unfair, and discriminatory every time you lose an election is probably not the best way to secure their confidence and votes in the future.