Kevin Smith appointed to school board's Zone 3 position

Wednesday, October 20, 2010

— Kevin Smith was appointed to the vacant Zone 3 school board position on Monday night by a vote of the four recently elected school board members.

No candidates filed for the position prior to the September election, and state law mandates that the school board has 30 days to appoint someone to the open seat before it becomes the county quorum court’s responsibility to choose a school board member from Zone 3.

When the school board met on Oct. 1, they decided to advertise the open position and ask interested parties to fill out a questionnaire and appear at Monday’s meeting to answer questions.

The appointed board member will serve for one year, then the position will open for election to complete the remainder of the three-year term. The appointed board member did not have to live in Zone 3, but board members agreed that it would be better if they did so that they could run for re-election in the future.

Three potential candidates filled out questionnaires: Smith, Robert Buenning and Richard Sletten. Smith and Buenning are both residents of Zone 3. Sletten is not a resident of Zone 3, but did have previous school board experience from another state, superintendent Larry Ben said. Smith and Buenning both attended Monday’s meeting, but Sletten was not present.

School board president Ike Owens asked if the school board would like to consider candidates from outside Zone 3. Thompson and Aaron Owens suggested they would like to choose someone from Zone 3, so the appointed member could file for re-election.

Ben explained the time requirements and duties of school board members to Smith and Buenning.

Justin Thompson made a motion to appoint Smith, and Aaron Owens seconded the motion. Smith will be sworn in and will have to continue training with the other school board members.

“I would like to thank those who put their names in to become members,” said school board president Ike Owens.

In other business, the school board voted to appoint district treasurer Terry Burden as school board secretary. At the Oct. 1 meeting, Ben told the board the secretary could be a board member or another person. The board originally appointed special programs coordinator Dawn Stewart to serve as secretary, but Ben reported Stewart and Burden had discussed the issue, and that they mutually agreed that they would like Burden to be the secretary.

During the meeting, the board also approved the following measures:

◊To set the new district technology coordinator’s salary at $37,000 and to do more research before considering whether to create a permanent salary schedule for that position or leave it open for negotiation;

◊To appoint Darleen Holly to serve on the district’s Closing the Achievement Gap Committee;

◊Approved the district’s ACIP plan;

◊Approved the district’s Acknowledgment of Minority Recruitment Plan; and

◊Accepted the district’s Annual Report to the Public presented by Dawn Stewart.

News, Pages 1 on 10/20/2010