School board elections in Siloam Springs will continue to be held on the third Tuesday of September.
Act 1281, passed during the 2015 legislative session, requires local school boards to decide whether to continue holding elections in September or to hold them with the general election in November.
School board members, at their May 19 meeting, approved Superintendent Ken Ramey's recommendation to hold the elections in September.
Ramey explained that holding the election during the general election in November could create confusion for voters because their polling place for the general election and the school board election would not necessarily be the same.
Each school board member serves a five year term. Terms rotate so that one board member comes up for election each year and only the residents of that member's zone can vote in the school board election.
Ramey also pointed out that the school district would share the costs of the general election even if only one candidate ran for office. Arkansas law allows polls to be closed on election day if there is no more than one candidate for the open position and if there is no change or restructure of the local millage rate. In the past, the district has applied to close the polls when the election was uncontested, saving the district several thousand dollars.
School board zone 5, currently held by Brent Butler, will be up for election this year.
In other business, the board voted to approve updated school board policies for the following year.
The policy updates, recommended by the Arkansas School Board Association, include stricter attendance regulations but allow board members to attend meetings remotely using methods such as Skype, Google Hangouts or a call-in service.
In order to attend a meeting remotely, board members must notify the superintendent four hours ahead of time and provide a way for the president or secretary to identify them. The other board members physically present at the meeting and the public must be able to hear the board member at all times, and they must be able to hear the other members of the board at all times.
Board members attending remotely cannot attend executive session or closed hearing or vote on an issue that is subject to executive session or closed hearing.
The board may use a member attending remotely to establish a quorum up to three times a calender year, but can't use that member to establish a quorum to enter an executive session.
Under the new policies, board members can lose their position if they fail to physically attend three consecutive regular meetings or fail to attend six regularly scheduled meetings in a year.
The policies also created a new officer position of legislative liaison, in addition to school board president, vice president and secretary. The legislative liaison is responsible for being the primary contact person for legislative updates from the ASBA, keeping the board updated on legislative issues and making arrangements for local legislators to be contacted on issues that would impact the district.
Officers are elected at the first regular meeting following the results of the annual school board election.
General News on 05/27/2015