FREE ACCESS: County commissioners will need to appoint new Neelyville board members

The Neelyville School Board met briefly Monday night for the first time since four of its members resigned. Lacking a quorum, minimal action was taken during the meeting, but members promised the public they were seeking new members.

New members will be appointed by Butler County commissioners, according to district policy.

The previous regular board meeting Thursday saw the resignations of Vernon Barker, Dean Fisher, Robert Burgett and Wayne Willcut after ongoing division on the board. The remaining members are Paul Petty, Jim Hover and Jill McGruder.

The board reorganized during its meeting Monday with Hover as president and Petty as vice president.

“Hopefully, we’ll meet again in a couple weeks, three at most, but we’ve got to get some things in order first,” Hover told attendees. “And this is all we can really do as the board right now, just pay the necessary bills. We don’t have a quorum to hire, fire or anything like that.”

The board approved payment of bills through an “essential necessity clause, where you could do it without a quorum,” he elaborated.

As for filling the vacancies, superintendent Heather Black said, “We will move forward following our board policy and law.”

Neelyville School Board policy BBE-1 states: “If there are more than two vacancies at any one time, the county commission, upon receiving written notice of the vacancies from the Board secretary, shall fill the vacancies by appointment... The persons appointed shall hold office until the next school board election, when directors shall be elected for the unexpired terms.”

Black said the written notice would be sent to the Butler County Commission this week.

Messages left for Butler County Presiding Commissioner Vince Lampe were not returned as of press time.

The full policy is available on the school’s website, neelyville.k12.mo.us.

Several Neelyville residents attended the meeting. One couple, who did not wish to be named, explained they have no children at school in the district but as taxpayers they wanted to stay informed.

“We try to stay in touch with the school. We like to know what’s going on. We do care about the district,” they said.