Charter school chairwoman steps down
Tara Keilberg, a founding board member for the Shining Rock Classical Academy, has resigned from her post as chairwoman on the board of directors to become the charter school’s new business manager.
Following a closed session meeting Monday night, the Shining Rock board unanimously approved hiring Keilberg to replace Niki Irving, who is leaving to start her own business. As a founding member of the school’s board, Keilberg has spent three years at the helm of the board and said it’s time for someone else to take over.
“It’s been a long journey, a hard journey at times and I just think it’s time for someone else to take on that leadership job,” she said.
Ben Butler, Shining Rock’s school director, advertised for the business manager position when he received notice Irving was leaving and asked Keilberg if she would be interested. At first, Keilberg said she turned it down, but when he asked her again, she gave it a lot of thought.
Resigning from the board will move Keilberg out of the spokesperson role for the school, but taking over as business manager will allow her to stay involved with Shining Rock. She said her many years of experience working as a financial administrator for nonprofits will be beneficial in her new position.
“Primarily I’ll be doing financial accounting and keeping the books but also doing the state required reporting, which is everything from attendance to test scores,” she said. “We hope to hire an administrative person for the front office so that would free me up to focus on the business aspect of things like researching and writing grants.”
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While serving as chairwoman of the board, Keilberg has had to deal with the brunt of every charter school decision and controversy that’s popped up in the last three years. She’s been the face of the school and has had to respond to criticisms and backlash from the public as Shining Rock tried to find a suitable piece of land. She said she’s ready to let go of that responsibility.
“I do think it’s important to show up and give yourself to a cause you think is valuable but not to hold onto it for so long,” she said. “I want people to think of someone else’s face besides mine when they think of the school.”
The next step will be for the Shining Rock governance committee to meet in the next week to decide on who should become the next chairperson for the board. That person would be officially appointed at the next board meeting in February. Keilberg said it would likely be someone serving on the executive committee, which includes Anna Eason and Nancy East.
The board also approved the appointment of two new board members to replace Keilberg and Diane Martinez, who resigned a couple of months ago. New members are Shannon Carlock and Jason Moody. Both have been active volunteers with the school since it formed.
“They are truly worker bees and that’s what we need on the board,” Keilberg said.
