The Vermilion School Board has certainly had an exciting couple months. I wanted to take a minute to tell you about the new school board and to explain what has been going on. First, we had the election on November 3rd. As I’m sure you all know, we had five candidates running; Shelly Innes, David Rice, Michael Stark, Nancy Oates, and Melanie Williamson.
Shelly Innes won her seat back in the election. Michael Stark and Nancy Oates also won open seats so they will be part of our new school board. They will be sworn in before the January meeting, and their term officially starts in January. They will each serve a four-year term.
We have school board elections every two years, so at this election three of the five board seats were available. At the next election, in two years, the other two seats will be up for election. Doing elections this way provides some consistency, opposed to having all five positions available every four years.
This year was somewhat different because we had a board member resign during the November meeting. As I’m sure you all saw in the Photojournal, Grant Harding stepped down from his position as a board member. When there is a resignation, the seat has to be filled by appointment. There are both school board policies and state codes that have to be followed in this situation.
The position was opened to the public. Any adult in the school district had the option of submitting a letter of interest. Everyone who filed a letter of interest has to be interviewed by the current board. In our case, there were ten people interviewed.
According to state code, the interviews and the decision all had to be conducted within the same meeting. The board had to make an appointment before their next meeting, but it also had to be between 10 and 30 days following the resignation. As you can imagine, this put a serious sense of urgency on the matter, and the current board members had to make this appointment a top priority.
Shelly Innes, David Rice, Dale Dawson, and Chris Habermehl interviewed all the candidates and voted on the one they wanted to appoint. Although the exact reasons behind their decision can’t be discussed, Shelly Innes did explain that they were focused on finding someone that believed in the shared vision of the district, someone that was committed to improving the district, and someone that could be part of communicating openly with the public.
All the candidates were very qualified and dedicated, which made their decision a difficult one. However, after the interviews were over and they had a chance to discuss their options, they voted to appoint Sara Stepp to the open board seat. Sara and her husband, Rudy, own a business in Vermilion. They also have two children in the district.
Sara was sworn in at the December regular board meeting, which was December 8th. She started immediately because she was filling an open seat. So, starting in January, our new Vermilion School Board will be Shelly Innes, Chris Habermehl, Michael Stark, Nancy Oates, and Sara Stepp.
In January, the school board webpage will be updated with pictures, profiles of each candidate, and contact information. When that is complete, we’ll post an announcement on the district Facebook page. I encourage everyone to take a minute and read the profiles. Feel free to contact board members with any questions, and as always, don’t hesitate to contact me if you have any questions.
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