Wyoming Governor Mark Gordon has chosen the head of a private Christian school in Cody as state superintendent. Brian Schroeder will fill out the final year of the term of Jillian Balow, who resigned to head up Virginia’s public school system.
Schroeder says he’s “honored and humbled beyond words at this incredible opportunity to serve the students, teachers, and parents of Wyoming” in strengthening education for the future of the state.
Schroeder’s been a teacher and administrator in California, Wisconsin, and Michigan as well as Wyoming. He was also a family and youth counselor for nearly 20 years and spent nearly a decade in pastoral ministry.
Gordon’s deadline for naming the new superintendent was midnight Thursday.. The state received 12 applications for the post and Schroeder was one of 3 finalists.
The others were State Representative and longtime Republican party activist Marti Halverson and former public school teacher Thomas Kelley, who lives in Sheridan but is a political and military science professor at American Military University in West Virginia.
Because Balow is a Republican, the Wyoming GOP Central Committee chose the finalists for consideration by Gordon, but the process was challenged in court by a bipartisan group of 16 individuals as unconstitutional.
Their suit argued that the process gives each county 3 votes, resulting in those with smaller populations having a disproportionately large influence, violating the equal protection clause of both the U-S and Wyoming constitutions.
They asked the court to keep the governor from making an appointment until their suit is decided, but U.S. District Judge Scott Skavdahl ruled earlier Thursday that failed to show they are likely to prevail in their case, which will continue.
Judge Skavdahl says the fact that the position will be on the ballot in November means that even if the plaintiffs are right, the voters will correct those issues through the candidates in the election process.
Good.