Three residents apply for vacant board seat

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BY CHUCK VANDENBERG
PCC EDITOR

FORT MADISON - Three district residents have submitted their name for an appointment to the Fort Madison School Board.

The board has to appoint someone before Feb. 1 to avoid the cost and formality of a special election, due to the sudden death of former school board vice president Gayla Young on Jan. 1.

At Monday's regular meeting of the school board, FMCSD Superintendent Dr. Erin Slater said Trisha Hopper, Bradley Menke, and Joshua Wykert have all submitted applications to the district for the appointment.

The district voted Monday to hold a special election next Monday to approve one of the three to the board.

Applications were accepted through 4 p.m. on Monday.

Board President Dr. Tim Wondra said it would be good if all three candidates were present at the Jan. 28 meeting.

"That way they could kind of go through the questions they answered on the application," Wondra said.

After hearing from the three candidates the board would consider a nomination to appoint one of the members and that appointment would take effect immediately. District Secretary Sandy Elmore would administer the oath of office.

The person appointed to the position would hold the director spot until the next regular school election which could be the upcoming next attempt to pass a bond referendum to build a new elementary school. That vote could come as early as this spring.

If the referendum goes in front of voters before the next regular school board election, the newly appointed person's seat would be on the ballot, as would the seat currently held by Brian Steffensmeier, who was appointed to fill a vacancy created when former board member Jillian Troxel, moved out of state.

Also, at the meeting, board member Dianne Hope was nominated and approved to take over the vice president's seat. Lois DiPrima was nominated to take over Young's legislative liaison, which is the board member who keeps tabs on legislative issues for the board.

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