Council member’s move to New Zealand will leave vacancy on Chapel Hill council
Chapel Hill Town Council member Rachel Schaevitz announced Monday she will be stepping down from the board next month, leaving the council looking for a new member.
Schaevitz said her family will be moving to Auckland, New Zealand, where her husband has taken a new job.
Rachel Schaevitz, a filmmaker and former postdoctoral fellow in public humanities at UNC, is one of four council members elected in 2017.
She has been a member of the Cultural Arts Commission, chair of the American Legion Task Force, and a member or liaison on multiple groups and commissions, including Family Success Alliance, Orange County Visitors’ Bureau, and the Council Committee on UNC Eastowne Negotiations.
She said she has been inspired by the Chapel Hill community and the engaged, caring people who live in it.
“I can’t even explain what a tough choice this was and how bittersweet it feels to go,” she said Monday in a phone interview with The News & Observer. “I’m really torn up about it and trying to hold it together as best I can, but I’ve just loved this opportunity, all the people I’ve gotten to meet, and all the people who helped get me into this seat. It was just an unbelievable experience.”
The council will select Schaevitz’s replacement after she leaves in mid- to late February, Mayor Pam Hemminger said. Schaevitz’s council term expires in 2021.
“We certainly understand what a remarkable opportunity this is for Dr. Schaevitz and wish her well,” Hemminger said in a news release. “We will miss her positive energy and her ability to communicate issues concisely and effectively.”
Schaevitz said her departure could be a good opportunity for someone to step up who may not be as adept at campaigning.
“It seems like an interesting opportunity to get a candidate in that seat who would do an amazing job serving the town,” she said.
Job opportunity
While Schaevitz and her husband always have planned to live abroad while their children were young, she said the plan came together quickly when her husband, Dr. David Schaevitz, was offered a job in Auckland.
David Schaevitz is now an emergency-room physician at the Cone Health Alamance Regional Medical Center in Burlington. That type of job is in high demand in New Zealand, Schaevitz said, so it’s helping to expedite the family’s immigration process.
His new job will give them a close look at how socialized medicine works for patients and medical staff at a time when universal health care is a central election issue in the United States, Schaevitz said. Their children, who are 5- and 7-year-old students at Frank Porter Graham Elementary School, will experience a different kind of educational system.
Schaevitz has talked with academic professionals about potential work in the university and research system in New Zealand.
The family will stay in Auckland for at least two years, giving them time to learn more about their new neighbors and country, Schaevitz said. Having this opportunity now also makes it less disruptive for their children, she said.
The pending adventure is exciting but bittersweet, Schaevitz said.
“I take my responsibility to the town very seriously and am so grateful to the residents of Chapel Hill who supported me in this role,” she said in a news release. “In leaving, I am confident the council will continue to welcome strong voices for inclusivity, the arts, thoughtful development and a greener, more sustainable future.”
This story was originally published January 6, 2020 at 4:29 PM.
