When a door closes, a window opens, even in politics.
Lynn Finnegan, who lost her bid for lieutenant-governor in 2010 with Republican gubernatorial candidate James "Duke" Aiona, was appointed Tuesday to Hawaii's Charter School Review Panel.
The Board of Education appoints the review panel members, of which there are 11 total. Finnegan will fill one of six empty seats for the next three years.
Three others were appointed Tuesday, including board member Jim Williams, who will fill the Board of Education's designated seat on the panel. Williams, a co-founder of Voyager Public Charter School, said he resigned from his position as a trustee at the school to eliminate any potential conflicts of interest in his new role on the panel.
He said that although he has no specific agenda on the review panel, he is interested in stabilizing funding for charter schools and examining the lines of authority over charter schools at the state level.
The other two appointees are:
- Usha Kotner, director of Kona Pacific Public Charter School. She will fill the seat designated for the head of a charter school.
- John Colson, chief education officer of Waimea Middle Public Conversion Charter School. He will fille the seat designated for the head of a conversion charter school.
The remaining two seats to be filled are designated for representatives from the University of Hawaii and the real estate or building trades industry.
The Charter School Review Panel has been under scrutiny by legislators this year as it struggled to deal with alleged ethics violations in some of the schools under its jurisdiction.