Traverse City Area Public Schools (TCAPS) trustees winnowed a field of 10 applicants down to four finalists to be publicly interviewed Monday for a vacant board seat. Trustees are expected to choose their appointee that same night, as the board is under a legal deadline to fill the vacancy after Trustee Andrew Raymond stepped down last month.  

The field of 10 applicants included (in alphabetical order) Gerald DeGrazia, Jessica Forster, Scott Hardy, Jeremy Henner, Michael Lee, Becky Lent, Chris Linsell, Peter Mooney, Eamon Smith, and Dee Zuidersma. Two candidates did not submit requested materials in time for board deliberations. Trustees used those materials – including resumes and written responses to a questionnaire – to vote for their top three candidates. That narrowed the field down to four finalists, who all had at least two votes each and will be interviewed Monday. Finalists include Jessica Forster, Scott Hardy, Becky Lent, and Peter Mooney.

Candidates will each be given up to five minutes Monday to make an opening statement, followed by a brief Q&A with the board. Trustees will then deliberate and used a ranked-vote system to select their top candidate. That individual will immediately join the board for the remainder of the meeting discussion, though cannot cast any votes until they are later sworn in. The appointee will complete the rest of Raymond’s term through the end of 2026. Trustees said this week they hope to hear from the public with thoughts on the candidates (the board can be emailed at schoolboard@tcaps.net.)

Ahead of Monday’s interviews, The Ticker has an overview on the four candidates and answers to key questions they provided in their applications.

Jessica Forster
Background: An attorney and interfaith community organizer, Jessica Forster is involved with the Spiritual Activists Leading Together (SALT) Coalition and is a board member at Beloved 360, “a group of people in northern Michigan working to bring awareness of injustices and healing in our community in a Christ-like way.” She was previously on the teaching pastor team at Kensington Church and served from 2019 to 2023 on the Traverse City Human Rights Commission. Forster has three children enrolled at TCAPS. She wrote in her cover letter that she is “passionate about working alongside the other board members to build a school district where every child can thrive.”

What do you believe are the key characteristics of a successful public Board of Education trustee? “The key characteristics of a successful public Board of Education trustee are integrity, collaborative leadership, and problem-solving skills. Integrity is imperative for any form of leadership, especially those working for the public trust. As an attorney and a community organizer in our Grand Traverse interfaith community, integrity is a core value that I hold. I always strive to act in the interest of others through transparency and fairness. Collaborative leadership means empowering others while working together to achieve a shared purpose in uncertain circumstances...while board members may have different experiences or perspectives, the board should have the common goal to work together to effectively fulfill its duties to support the district and superintendent. There is no room for competition but only collaboration and leadership to support the students, teachers, and staff.”

Describe your experience working with TCAPS and/or other community organizations, including any family connections (past or present) within the district? “My experience working with TCAPS is as a parent-volunteer at my children’s school. I always enjoy working with the school, and last year I participated in the Lunch Buddies program where community members ate lunch with the students and played with them at recess. Other community organizations that I am affiliated with include SALT...a nonprofit organization that seeks to empower interfaith leaders to work towards building our community into one where everyone can thrive. I also serve regularly at Safe Harbor with 5Loaves2Fish.”

What do you believe to be TCAPS' strengths, weaknesses, and challenges? “TCAPS has a strong community of teachers and staff who deeply care about our kids. In addition, TCAPS has a strong reputation for community-wide support. The challenges come from the lasting effects of the pandemic, including student enrollment and the academic and mental health challenges from distance learning. While these challenges are not unique to TCAPS, there are still ones that TCAPS continues to wrestle with. Additional challenges that I see through my work within the community and my involvement as a parent of TCAPS students have to do with the ability to hire and retain teachers and staff. The difficulty hiring and retaining teachers and staff plays directly into the student to teacher ratio impacting class sizes. Other challenges facing TCAPS include the balance of technology and children’s development.”

Scott Hardy
Background: Traverse City realtor Scott Hardy is a past TCAPS board member – who chaired the finance and communications committees during his tenure – and is a member of the TCAPS Hall of Fame. He has served as chair of the TC Downtown Development Authority, is a past member of the Women’s Resource Center board, and was previously mayor pro tem on the city commission. With additional service on a previous Illinois school board, Hardy said he has over 15 total years of educational board experience. “I have come to appreciate just how complex public education has become and the myriad of issues we/you deal with daily,” he wrote. “At its core, however, public education is about the students and preparing them for an increasingly complex world they need to be ready for upon graduation. If we can’t succeed at that level, the money and time we spend getting there is simply overhead without our expected ROI.”

What do you believe are the key characteristics of a successful public Board of Education trustee? “Ideological impartiality, patience, a collaborative personality, and belief in the role that public education plays for all students. An understanding that our only employee is the superintendent of the district, and we cannot get directly involved in employee job performance.”

Describe your experience working with TCAPS and/or other community organizations, including any family connections (past or present) within the district? “As you can see from my resume, I have served in multiple volunteer or elected capacities in city and county government along with two consecutive terms as a TCAPS board member. My daughter teaches at Westwoods Elementary, and my nephew is in administration at West Senior High School along with his wife at West Middle School. I have two grandchildren at Westwoods and two at West Middle School.”

What do you believe to be TCAPS' strengths, weaknesses, and challenges? “The strength of TCAPS is teachers and administrators who strongly believe in the role they play in educating the 8,000+ students they serve. The biggest weakness is validating the financial investment made by the State of Michigan and its’ taxpayers through student performance metrics. The size of the TCAPS school district both geographically and by student and employee headcounts are always in conflict with funding received through the state. Our political voice is seldom loud enough to secure the financial resources that we need and deserve. The current federal approach to government educational subsidies will make this harder.”

Becky Lent
Background: Becky Lent is a former TCAPS employee at TC West Senior High School, a current TCAPS volunteer, and a local Special Olympics registered volunteer. She holds teaching certificates in both Michigan and Arizona and has 27 years of experience in a variety of educational roles. “I am also a parent of two adult children, one an individual with disabilities and one who is gifted and talented,” Lent wrote. “Through all of these avenues, I have developed an understanding of some of the challenges as well as an eye for opportunities that would allow for continued growth and development in our district and our community as a whole.”

What do you believe are the key characteristics of a successful public Board of Education trustee? “Key characteristics of a successful Board of Education trustee are to be an active participatory member, always come prepared, have a solution-based perspective, represent and serve the community, focus on the district mission, vision, and goals, and remain an advocate for all students’ needs.”

Describe your experience working with TCAPS and/or other community organizations, including any family connections (past or present) within the district? “I have held two different roles within the TCAPS community. My first as the spouse of a TCAPS teacher. He taught American Sign Language (ASL) at TC West Senior High School. After his diagnosis of stage 4 pancreatic cancer, he was unable to finish his first year teaching there. As a result of his passing, I was then needed to return to the workforce as I had been a stay-at-home mom our first year after we moved here. This leads to my second role within the TCAPS family. I became a member of the TC West Senior High School family as a School Safety Advisor. As a retired school teacher, I thrived in this environment. However, I felt it necessary to leave my position to return home and be a better support to my adult son with disabilities as I am now a single mother.”

What do you believe to be TCAPS' strengths, weaknesses, and challenges? “TCAPS strengths are the sense of community that each school campus provides and retention of teachers that demonstrates high quality leadership and administrative teams at each school, which reflects on the TCAPS board of directors' successes at focusing on those key elements to make for an exemplary educational experience for all stakeholders and students. An area with room for growth within the district is in regard to the TCAPS website. Access to information through the website is difficult to navigate, not very user friendly, and updates to school websites are inconsistent. The only challenge that I can identify for TCAPS would be to continue to raise the bar in all areas, as this is a phenomenal district and community to be a part of. When you rise to such heightened levels within a system it can be difficult to continue upward and break the glass ceiling, then move beyond it.”

Peter Mooney
Background: Peter Mooney is an operations manager for the Shulz Organization, the largest organization of McDonald’s restaurants in the state. He oversees 16 of the 36 locations in northern Michigan and leads HR for the entire organization. He cited his experience in the industry for exposing him to “many sides of the economy and customer base,” helping him to “be well-rounded when dealing with people.” Mooney is involved locally in the youth wrestling program and development as a coach and board vice president. “This is an area where I can make an impact through our youth and feel like I can really make a difference,” he wrote. “I would love to expand on this by doing so through the TCAPS board. I am eager to contribute my strategic thinking, leadership abilities, and strong network to support TCAPS’ continued growth and impact.”

What do you believe are the key characteristics of a successful public Board of Education trustee? “A board member is someone who is completely transparent, clear, and concise in communication and will advocate for what is best for the students of our school district. A school board can impact more people in a school district than the local government. It is imperative that what is being done is completely open to the public so there is never any doubt about our actions now and our goals for the future.”

Describe your experience working with TCAPS and/or other community organizations, including any family connections (past or present) within the district? “I have had nothing but pleasant experiences working with TCAPS to this point. My children both attend Courtade and have nothing but praise for that elementary school. I am also heavily involved with the Trojan Wrestling Club, and we work with TCAPS in multiple capacities and have strong working relationships.”

What do you believe to be TCAPS' strengths, weaknesses, and challenges? “TCAPS's strength is the school district's reach and support. A growing number of people want to continue to help TCAPS move forward and are willing to help in specific capacities. A weakness is the lack of staff and housing market supply to coincide with the needs. A challenge is the economic divide throughout the district and the hardship the housing market adds to that with the highs and lows. Though this board does not have the capacity or the capability to take on all these community issues, we can be problem solvers so that our students, parents, and community can play a role and voice for solutions.”

Note: Some answers have been edited for length and/or clarity.