Brann Appointed as Brentsville's Interim School Board Rep.

Image of Shawn Brann, candidate for Prince William School Board interim Brentsville member at the Sept. 7 school board meeting.

The Prince William County School Board unanimously elected Shawn L. Brann as Brentsville’s temporary representative on the board to replace Gil Trenum. The vote was held after 1 a.m., Thursday morning.

Trenum is overseas, serving as a commander in the U.S. Navy for one year's time.

Brann was one of three people who Trenum recommended to take his place in his absence. Brann is a Senior Technical Writer with a government contractor, a former English teacher at Woodbridge Senior High School, coach and teacher on administrative assignment. Brann has served on several school committees where he represented the Brentsville District.

Chairman Ryan Sawyers motioned that the school board appoint Shawn Brann as the interim member of the school board to serve until such time when Trenum resumes the duties of his office.

As Sawyers previously asked the Virginia Attorney General for guidance, in addition to other occurrences that may have caused upheaval to the process, many believed Sawyer’s was angling to place a Democrat in the seat.

Veterans who spoke at previous school board meetings and during a press conference said it was insulting to Trenum's service to not choose one of the people he recommended. Many Brentsville citizens also asked that the board choose someone Trenum trusts to represent their district.

Sawyers said it was never the case that he wanted to choose the representative, but it was all about the process.

Obviously, this was not only a new thing for me as far as a temporary replacement, it was kind of a new thing for the state. A school board has never had to replace an active duty military member as far as I know of. There was a lot of confusion on the front end of the board.

He said the board sought the Attorney General’s opinion to make sure they were “doing it right.”

“As I stated then, it was all about the process for me. It wasn’t all about the who, but the how, and so we’ve made sure. I do appreciate the fact that we’ll have a full board moving forward,” Sawyers said.

All school board members raised their hands to vote for Brann.

Potomac school board representative Justin Wilk commented. “I do want to say ‘welcome to the board, Shawn.’ I was very happy to publicly endorse you.”