Canyon ISD board votes to wait on decision for filling Bill Jenkins' seat

CANYON - At Monday’s Canyon Independent School District (CISD) board meeting, trustees accepted the resignation of Bill Jenkins and discussed how to fill his position.

Following the resignation of Jenkins in January, the board now sees itself in a position for the second time in a year to replace one of its members.

In July, the board was faced with the sudden death of board member Paul Blake, which prompted some community members to call for an election, but the board, by a 4-2 margin, approved appointing an interim replacement. This process involved having those interested apply for the position and a vigorous selection process for an interim board member, who was selected from about 10 candidates for the position.

This board appointment left some in the community resentful because they felt Blake’s replacement should share his exact views. Some people criticized the importance of religion was not considered as a criterion for the position on the school board.

Superintendent Darryl Flusche spoke about conversations that he and Jennie Winegarner, the board president, had with election officials that gave the board narrow options to choose to go to an election. If there is not a Potter-Randall Appraisal District (PRAD) contested election, it is possible to have that. CISD would have to run their election, which would be extremely complicated and costly to the district.

If there is an election, depending on the number of races, CISD will share in the cost with the other races of the upcoming election for the forthcoming board position. Flusche said in his comments that the district could be denied an election by officials too. The open position must be filled by June 8.

Concerned citizen Lea Davis spoke during public comment about the importance of the citizenry of the Canyon ISD being able to choose school board candidates by election, rather than appointment. She expressed disappointment that Blake’s position was chosen by appointment.

"When this board arbitrarily decided not to have an election to replace Paul Blake last year, the message was sent loud and clear that the electorate of CISD is not considered smart enough or wise enough, at least not at your level, to decide who would represent us behind that bench," Davis said. “It is extremely offensive ... if there is any way possible to have an election to replace Mr. Jenkins, please make that happen. We are the people who put you there, and our concerns should be what is driving the board's decisions. Today it feels like the concerns of some members of the community are not considered at all.”

Davis expressed concern that a further appointment was to avoid having the citizens elect another board member like Blake, who came under fire for his comments about the LGBTQ+ community.

Following board discussions, the trustees voted to table the motion until there is more clarity if there will be an election for PRAD. If contested races that require an election are announced, a special meeting will be called to decide whether to hold an election.

Regardless of the decision, whoever gets placed into the position by appointment or election will have a general election to fill that seat in May 2025.

Board president Winegarner talked about the limited time frame and the difficulties of having an election for the seat due to legal ramifications. She said that if an election is decided, the filing period for a school board election would be only about a week, unlike the normal 30-day timeline.

“We are navigating some of those legal questions, and I think as a board we are all committed to wanting to pursue an option to fill by an election, but we want to do it in a legal and proper way,” Winegarner said. “Right now, we have a lot of things beyond our control, and we decided to wait so that by the time we meet next month, we will have more clarity. We are only legally authorized under the Texas Election Code to call for an election, even a special one, on a uniform election date. There are many constraints to having an election within this window of opportunity.”

Winegarner said that if the board decides to go to a special election, there will be a truncated timeframe, which could affect the quality of the candidates having much less time to make a decision of this magnitude.

"We want to make sure we have the best candidate pool and give everyone ample opportunity to consider whether they want to serve in this capacity and to pursue what that looks like for them,” Winegarner said. “I think a shortened time frame that we would be forced to work under would be very concerning.”

This article originally appeared on Amarillo Globe-News: Canyon ISD has short time frame to consider board election