GUILDERLAND — The school board here has a new member: Meredith Brière.

She bested three men looking to fill the unpaid post, and will serve until the next election in the seat vacated by Judy Slack who resigned, at age 80, after 16 years on the board.

The four candidates were interviewed on Sept. 24 in a televised session where two high school juniors posed a series of eight questions while the school board members took notes before convening in a closed session.

The board will officially vote on the appointment at its next meeting, Oct. 1, at which time Brière will be sworn in.

“I spoke with her yesterday,” board President Blanca Gonzalez-Parker told The Enterprise on Thursday. “She accepted.”

Gonzalez-Parker said the board had reached consensus on Brière and she then gave her own personal reasons for the selection.

“She did a fantastic job answering the questions,” said Gonzalez-Parker. “Two qualities stood out for me.”

One was Brière’s “world view” and teaching experience; she had taught in China as a member of the Peace Corps.

The other was Brière’s experience in securing grants. “We are strapped for cash and could use that,” said Gonzalez-Parker.

“We’re very lucky to have so many great candidates,” said Gonzalez-Parker. The other applicants were:

— Mateo Dunagan, who ran for the school board in May, coming in last in a five-way race for three seats. Dunagan, a Guilderland graduate, said he had worked as a cashier and service clerk for Hannaford and is currently a college student;

— Sean O’Brien, a science teacher at Scotia-Glenville Middle School who has five children in the Guilderland schools; and

— Peter Stapleton, who said he has been a teacher, educator, department chair, and now works in higher education; his wife is a Guilderland graduate and they have two children in the Guilderland schools.

The nine-member board, which became all-female for the first time in its history with the May elections, will continue as such.

Asked if this had anything to do with the selection of Brière, Gonzalez-Parker said, “We went with the best candidate who was female and that makes me proud.” She said she is proud of leading the “historic’ all-female board.

Meredith Brière

Meredith Brière, who earned a bachelor’s degree in cultural anthropology in 2014 from the University of Maryland, stressed her “diverse range of roles, all focused on service, leadership, and advocacy.”

She is currently treasurer for the Joe Simon for Assembly campaign.

“My experience as the director of operations for Shalom Food Pantry and Bethlehem Chabad demonstrates my ability to manage complex projects, secure funding, and engage the community,” Brière said at the forum.

She also said, “My experience as a Peace Corps volunteer in China gave me a deep understanding of the importance of cultural exchange, diversity, and inclusion. I was placed at a politically charged site where I navigated complex cultural dynamics while fostering mutual respect and understanding.”

She also stressed her local volunteer work as secretary for the Guilderland Democratic Committee and as treasurer for the McKownville Fire District.

Brière said she is “incredibly passionate about public education.” She and her husband moved from Arizona, she said, “specifically for the quality of the public education system, and I have never looked back.”

She has two children who will be entering the school district, Brière said, and knowing they will be at Westmere Elementary School has given her a sense of calm.

Brière sees the school board as “a liaison between taxpayers, parents, students, elected officials — basically that overall voice.”

“Listening is huge,” she said. Moving the district forward depends on discourse on issues from electrifying school buses to alternative pathways for graduation, she said.

“If I’m lucky enough to be chosen,” Brière said at the forum, “I will work every day. I’m a hard worker.”

She likes the district’s focus on diversity, equity, and inclusion and would like “to see that expanded even further.”

“I’m a Jewish woman,” said Brière. “It’s not always easy going out there and saying that out loud. I want my children to be able to say that proudly and not be at risk for any attacks or, you know, any negative feelings coming their way.”

Asked about striking a balance, when budgeting, between meeting students’ needs and not overburdening taxpayers, Brière said, “I’m currently a treasurer for a state-level campaign. I’m also the treasurer for the McKownville Fire District.”

McKownville is building a new firehouse — the $9.6 million project passed in April with 80 percent of the vote — and Brière said many days, nights, and weekends have been spent “going over the budget, going over where we’re going to take the money from.”

She went on, “The first thing we have to recognize is that an education costs money, and keeping taxes low is absolutely a priority. But that means using funds in the most fiscally responsible way while getting the most out of those dollars.

“I also think it means looking for alternative ways to fund programs that are deemed necessary,” said Brière, noting she had a background in grant research and grant writing.

She also said, “Maybe programs are going to be cut; maybe they’re not … Sometimes, as a school board member, you’re going to be the bad guy … Getting comfortable with having difficult conversations is something that I believe is at the forefront of being on the school board.”

When asked about banning smart devices in school, Brière was the only applicant who did not come out in favor of a ban.

“I’m going to take the middle of the road, and I want to learn more,” said Brière. As an educator, she said, she could see the distraction caused by the devices. “If we’re going to have that,” she said of a ban, “we also need to enforce and hold students and families accountable for what our rules may be.”

“I am not for a total ban,” she went on. “The reason being I believed that an education is getting these students ready to move into their life, and that is just not the way that the world works anymore. I think it’s dangerous to say, you know, ‘We did it one way and our students need to do it in a similar fashion.’”

She went on, “I don’t think that students should be having smart devices in class unless there is something about that class that is moving their education forward … We saw during COVID students having to have smart devices in order to get an education.”

Finally, Brière said, “We’re seeing an uptick in school shootings; I want my child to be able to contact me if that happens … I also want my child to be able to reach out to me if they need me during the day, if they are being bullied.”

Asked about the schools being culturally responsive and inclusive, Brière said, “We’re seeing the district grow. We’re seeing change in the socioeconomic status of the population. We have I think it’s over 35 percent of our students below the poverty line. That’s a huge number.”

She stressed the importance of understanding that “different” is “neither good nor bad.”

Brière went on, “DEI work to me is about equalizing everything from socioeconomic status to race to religion and having discussions where all of these different groups and classes come together to understand each other more, and have a better understanding as they go out into the world.”

She suggested looking at the curriculum and bringing in outside speakers for a “broad look.”

Brière concluded, “As a broad stroke, you know, just being more inclusive ourselves and having the guts to admit that we live within systems trying to break those systems down, starting here.”