Stow-Munroe Falls school board appoints new member, prepares for superintendent vote

The Stow-Munroe Falls Board of Education voted 3-1 late Wednesday to appoint Antoinette East-Jenkins to complete the term of a school board member who resigned in late April. Now that the vacancy has been filled, the board expects to move quickly on naming a superintendent.

The board will hold a special meeting at 5 p.m. Friday at its 4350 Allen Road office in Stow. East-Jenkins will be sworn in, and the agenda includes discussion of the next steps in the superintendent search. The agenda also holds open the option for an executive session to discuss the appointment of a public official and/or the employment of a public employee.

East-Jenkins was one of 14 candidates who were interviewed over nearly five hours Wednesday; five other candidates were interviewed earlier this month.

She will complete the the term vacated by Jon Leissler, who resigned citing family and business priorities. The term runs through the end of 2025. Board members Nancy Binzel, Pamela Wind and Kari Suhadolnik voted in favor of East-Jenkins' appointment; Mike Sheehan voted against it.

"We had a great crowd of candidates," Wind, the board's vice president, said before the vote. "I really appreciate that."

East-Jenkins ran unsuccessfully for the Stow-Munroe Falls board in 2019.

According to her LinkedIn profile, she is a student services manager at Kent State University. She also previously worked at The University of Akron for nearly 16 years in various positions. She had resigned as the chair of Stow's Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Initiative in 2022 to work for Kent State. She also was a part of a group in Munroe Falls that wanted to create a citizen's police oversight commission to review police department procedures and address police-related concerns.

The superintendent search has caused a split in the district, which has about 5,000 students and in nine school buildings.

The board had been prepared to vote May 6 on offering a superintendent contract to Felicia Gould, the current assistant superintendent with the Cleveland Heights-University Heights school district. But it changed course amid a backlash from supporters of fellow finalist Kristen Prough, the Stow-Munroe Falls interim superintendent — deciding the superintendent vote must wait until after Leissler's successor is sworn in and the district once again has a full, five-member board.

"The plan is to move forward with the superintendent issues as quickly as possible," said Binzel, the board president. She added that the school board will "be reaching out to both candidates to set things up and move this forward."

Binzel said she wanted to "get it resolved so our community can come together and heal and move forward and be a community again instead of two warring factions."

Reporter April Helms can be reached ahelms@theakronbeaconjournal.com

This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Antoinette East-Jenkins chosen to fill Stow-Munroe Falls board vacancy