Starting on July 1, the Delaware School Board Association will have a new executive director. Former Seaford School Board President David Tull will take over for John Marinucci just a few months after his reelection bid ended in defeat.
“The DSBA is an association that is made up of representatives of all 19 school districts in the state, which consist of the board of directors,” said Tull.
Former Seaford School Board President David Tull was recently named DSBA executive director. Photo by Hunter Nusz
Tull, who was first elected to the Seaford School Board in 2013, started attending DSBA organization meetings. “I knew the executive director at the time (Sue Francis) and she talked to me and said, ‘Dave you really need to go to those,’ and it wasn’t really long after that that I really got involved and was elected to be the representative from the Seaford Board, then I was elected to become the legislative committee chair, which I did for seven years,” said Tull.
“The role of the executive director is to advocate for all school districts and school board members with any legislation that is involved with education. I represent them, whatever they want is what I do, they are my boss,” said Tull.
The opportunity for Tull to take the position first came from heartbreak- after Tull lost the School Board election in May. “I didn’t get reelected, but that opened up the opportunity because because we knew he (Marinucci) was going to retire this year, so I put my name in the hat and the executive team for DSBA voted to appoint me as the next executive director.”
“I was a little bit down because I didn’t get reelected, I really wanted to stay here and continue working with the Seaford School District because from when I came on in 2013 to now, Seaford has raised the bar so high compared to other school districts in the state and I just wanted that to continue,” he said.
Speaking of Marinucci, Tull said, “He brought the organization back up to standards in the six or seven years he’s been working, and I just want to follow in his footsteps and continue to have the DSBA be a strong advocate for the school districts. It’s going to be a challenge, and it’s going to take me a while to get acclimated to the position but for the last two weeks I’ve been going and meeting John in his office and basically training.”
Tull said that he is going to miss the people from the Seaford School District. “One of my goals is to go around during the year and visit all 19 school districts at one of their board meetings. I’ve already got one scheduled, so I’m still going to be involved,” said Tull.
