The Austin Public School Board unanimously appointed David Ruzek to fill the seventh vacant board seat Monday night, ending more than six months of drama surrounding the search for Austin’s next board member.

Ruzek is a previous school board member, having served from January 1993 to December 1996. It’s his previous board experience that was a deciding factor in his recommendation, according to board chairperson Richard Lees.

“He qualified for what (the board) was looking for,” Superintendent David Krenz said during Monday’s board meeting.

Krenz was charged with recommending a suitable board member in August. According to Lees, Krenz discussed his recommendation choices with board members in the weeks prior to Monday’s meeting, feeling out who the board thought would be the best candidate for the job. Ruzek was agreed upon by board members several days prior to his apppointment.

“When talking about a person that has been on the board, that had experience, he surfaced above everyone else,” Lees said. “We all agreed that he’d make a good member.”

Ruzek will be sworn in Sept. 27 during the school board’s monthly work session. He will serve the remaining year left on the seat’s term.

The seventh board seat was vacated in March, when the school board voted to remove Curt Rude from his seat—marking the first time in history a Minnesota school board member has been dismissed by their colleagues.

Rude was removed after the board determined his civil defamation lawsuit against the district created a conflict of interest. The district held a hearing weeks later, where an independent arbitrator reviewed both sides before issuing a recommendation that it would be best to remove Rude.

The conflict of interest concern was tied to a defamation suit Rude filed last November against former superintendent Candace Raskin and the school district, requesting at least $50,000 in damages. His lawsuit was thrown out in June.

The school board couldn’t actively search for a new member until after Rude’s period of a right to appeal his removal from the school board expired. The board formed a committee in May to design a process by which to fill his seat, coming up with the idea to hold a community-wide application process and vote on the finalists.

Nine people applied for the seat, of which four were selected finalists. Yet the board deadlocked on a finalist vote in July, ultimately deciding to table the selection process in favor of working on more important issues.

Board member Jeff Kritzer addressed concerns during Monday’s meeting that the board was divided before Ruzek was officially appointed, telling audience members present that the board had about 75 minutes of debate during the finalist vote in July.

According to Kritzer, the debate and discussion that arises from issues like this show that the board is doing it’s job.

“The truth is that I hope the people on this board disagree with me, and especially on important issues,” Kritzer said, going on to explain that through disagreements and discussion, the resulting decisions will be better for the community because they’ve been thoroughly talked about.

Although district officials have stressed in the past that the absence of a school board member doesn’t affect the board’s effectiveness, now that a new board member has been appointed, business can get back to normal, according to Lees.

“This has been sort of a thorn in our side in not having a seventh board member,” Lees said.

The board’s appointment woes aren’t necessarily over. Because she is constitutionally barred from holding more than one elected office at a time, board member Kathy Green, who is campaigning for the state senate district 27 seat held by Incumbent Dan Sparks, would have to give up her seat if she won her campaign in November. Green said Monday that she would give up her school board seat if she won her state senate campaign, thus making the school board start another appointment process.

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