The Neelyville School Board wasted no time in confirming the school board president and vice president on Thursday evening during a special session held in the Neelyville R-IV Central Office Board Room.
Newly sworn-in members Les Thomas, Gene Russom, Jack Stull and John French all took the oath to serve after four board members (Vernon Barker, Dean Fisher, Robert Burgett and Wayne Willcut) resigned in September of this year.
“If there are more than two vacancies at any one time, the county commissioner, when receiving written notice of a vacancy from the board secretary, shall fill the vacancies by appointment,” Superintendent Heather Black told board members before new members were sworn in on Thursday evening.
Each new board member read an oath during the meeting affirming that they would support the constitution of the United States and the constitution of the state of Missouri.
After the swearing-in ceremony, the board unanimously voted for Jim Hover to serve as president of the board and Paul Petty to serve as vice president. Hover and Petty were appointed by necessity to those roles at the Sept. 25 meeting. The next item on the agenda was to approve the bills for the school district which fell under the rule of necessity. Approval by board members was given.
Another agenda item was to approve the next board meeting set for Monday, Oct. 16. One of the board members suggested that the initial meeting be set for 6 p.m. to go into a closed executive session and then the public session be opened at 7 p.m.
All of the board members approved this new time change for the meeting and agreed to meet in an earlier executive session and have the public meeting set for 7 p.m.
The board then adjourned to go into a closed session to discuss personnel issues. According to Black, the board did make several decisions regarding the resignation of employees, but she was unable to disclose that information as of the press deadline.
Black did note that the board members appointed to fill the vacancies for the school board by the county commissioner had all served before and she was optimistic they were committed to serving again.