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From the Desk of Dr. Halley: School Board Vacancy

By Halley, Heath on December 02, 2019

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I hope everyone had a peaceful and fulfilling Thanksgiving. For the past few years, I have used my vacation time during the best holiday, Missouri Deer season!  Because of that, I have been out of the office until this week. Thus, I have been unable to provide this information to you in a timely manner. 

The Putnam County R-I Board of Education has yet again had a resignation from its ranks. The resignation from the board was provided in November by Mike Klingner. Mike came to the board in 2017 with his current term ending with the April 2020 election. 

As you can see the board has policies that dictate how this process would be handled. Those are policies 0323 and 0324.  According to school board policy 0323, the board will appoint a replacement to serve until the next School Board election, at which time the position shall be filled by election to complete the unexpired term. Board policy 0324 dictates the process for filling the vacancy. Policy 0324 states that: In filling the vacancy, the Board will inform the community and solicit applications. In addition, the Board may affirmatively solicit qualified community members to apply for the vacant position. The Board, or a committee designated by the Board, will screen the applicants and will select no more than three applicants for Board interview. Candidate interviews and the vote taken to fill the vacancy will occur in an open session meeting of the Board.  

With our past two occurrences, both resignations came in August or early September. Both were filled by the October school board meeting. This means the appointed member would be an active participant for 6 months prior to the election.

In our current situation, I sought legal counsel on behalf of the board to determine what is legal, prudent and common practice. It was decided that due to the proximity to the filing dates (December 17- January 21) for the 2020 school board election, the appointed individual would only sit on the board for 3 months, therefore, the board decided to leave the vacancy for the remainder of the term. It also provides the opportunity for the citizens of Putnam County to make the decision during the April election.