STARKVILLE — After months of delays, public scrutiny, an appointment and subsequent veto, the Starkville Board of Aldermen Tuesday voted to readvertise for letters of interest to fill the open seat on the Starkville School District board of trustees.
Aldermen voted 5-0 to advertise the position in The Starkville Dispatch and Starkville Daily News, with letters of interest due to Chief Administrative Officer Lynn Spruill by April 30 at 12 p.m. Aldermen plan to conduct the first round of interviews at the board”s next meeting, scheduled for May 4 at 5:30 p.m. in City Hall.
Ward 5 Alderman Jeremiah Dumas and Ward 7 Alderman Henry Vaughn Sr. recused themselves from the vote Tuesday and plan to do the same throughout the selection process. Both have immediate family working in the school district and were advised to recuse themselves from school board appointment proceedings by the Mississippi Ethics Commission to avoid any potential conflicts of interest.
The initial school board appointment process began this winter and was convoluted from the start.
After the first round of interviews, questions arose over the eligibility of candidate L. Ann Carr. The confusion over Carr”s eligibility delayed the second round of interviews.
When the Mississippi Attorney General”s Office ruled Carr was ineligible, some felt the city should readvertise the vacant school board seat and begin a new selection process because Carr potentially took the spot of another candidate who wasn”t selected to participate in the second round of interviews.
After the second round of interviews took place at the March 16 Board of Aldermen meeting, Ward 6 Alderman Roy A. Perkins made a motion to appoint former Oktibbeha County School District Superintendent Dr. Walter Conley to fill the vacant school board seat, but the motion failed 4-2, with only Perkins and Vaughn voting in favor of Conley. Ward 2 Alderwoman Sandra Sistrunk abstained.
Sistrunk then made a motion to appoint Susan Tomlinson to the school board and was joined in favor by Dumas, Ward 1 Alderman Ben Carver, Ward 3 Alderman Eric Parker and Ward 4 Alderman Richard Corey. Only Perkins and Vaughn voted against Tomlinson”s appointment.
Mayor Parker Wiseman, however, vetoed the appointment on March 18, saying the school board should be representative of the district itself.
The SSD is 64 percent black, 32 percent white, 2 percent Asian, 1 percent Native American and 1 percent Hispanic. If Tomlinson, who is white, were to serve on the school board, the board would become 80 percent white and 20 percent black.
Wiseman also said race should play a factor in selecting the next school board member, but should not be the “controlling factor.”
Aldermen attempted to override Wiseman”s veto on April 13, but the override failed by one vote as Dumas had recused himself at the suggestion of the Ethics Commission. The board on April 13 then voted to put an item on the agenda for Tuesday”s meeting which gave Spruill authority to readvertise the position.
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