GREEN BAY (NBC26) — Tuesday is the last day to apply for the open position on the Green Bay school board. A seat left open after Kou Lee resigned. NBC 26 spoke to a couple people vying for the seat.
- Meet two former school board candidates throwing their hat in the ring again
- Kou Lee is under investigation by the Brown County District attorney's office after resigning amid questions about whether he lived in the district
- Up next once all applications are in, the school board will narrow down applicants to start the interview process
- The person the board chooses will be an appointed school board member until April 2026
- A school district spokesperson says the board believes they will have the seat filled by the end of this month
- An election will be held next year to determine a successor
(The following is a transcription of the full broadcast story.)
Tuesday is the last day to apply for the open position on the Green Bay Area Public School Board. The seat was left open after Kou Lee resigned amid questions about whether he lived in the district. I'm Pari Apostolakos and I spoke to a couple people vying for the seat.
Meet two of the applicants in the video below:
After the Tuesday deadline, current Green Bay Area Public School Board members will meet to narrow down the applicants and start the interview process.
Two people who were on the school board ballot in April’s election are throwing their hats in the ring again.
With Kou Lee’s seat open, the board has to appoint someone to fill it until April next year, when someone will be elected.
Elliot Christenson and Katie Gentry both ran for school board this past April. Now, they’ve applied for the open spot.
“My kids went to Green Bay schools, and I’ve seen just a steady decline in a lot of ways and most of that is in leadership,” Christenson said at the NBC 26 news station Tuesday afternoon.
“I just care about this community, I care about the kids and I put in a lot of hard work around campaign season and I wasn’t ready to let that go just yet,” Gentry said in downtown Green Bay later that same day.
Christenson says one of the things he would like to see change is the district’s spending. He says he disagrees with the way the district has shut down schools because of declining enrollment.
“We’re closing schools and building gymnasiums and stadiums," Christenson said. "I don’t think that that’s appropriate.”
Gentry says she wants to see more transparency and communication from the board and for the board to be more accessible to people.
“There’s so many closed sessions in these school board meetings and I wonder how much of it we could also have more open to the public,” Gentry said.
On Tuesday, the school district was not able to tell NBC 26 how many people have applied so far.
A school district spokesperson says the board believes they will have the seat filled by the end of this month.
