DEARBORN ― The Dearborn Board of Education is seeking to fill a seat vacated by former Trustee Mariam Bazzi.

Bazzi resigned on May 22 after she was appointed by Governor Snyder as a judge in the Wayne County Circuit Court. She was a Lead Prosecuting Attorney in the Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office, and elected as a trustee in 2014.

On Tuesday, May 6, the six current trustees will conduct 15 minute interviews with seven applicants, followed by a deliberation and vote next Monday, June 12. The process is spelled out by the board’s bylaws to replace a mid-term vacancy. The board is required to select a new trustee within thirty days of Bazzi’s resignation. Five of the seven applicants are Arab Americans.

The selected applicant will need to run in the 2018 general elections – and win the public’s vote – to complete a partial term that ends in 2020.

The seven applicants are: Wadeeah Alshawi, Roxanne McDonald, Adel Mozip, Celia Nasser, Alex Shami, Zeinab Sobh and Irene Watts.

McDonald, a former board trustee, decided last year not to seek reelection to the board and instead ran unsuccessfully for the 15th state House district.

Mozip ran unsuccessfully for a seat on the Board of Education last November.

The board’s June 6 meeting to interview the candidates will start at 6 p.m. at the Administrative Service Center on 18700 Audette Street in Dearborn.