Granville school board seat mistakenly left off May ballot

Oct. 20—OXFORD — There were two Granville County school board seats on the ballot this past spring. There should have been a third.

Granville County Public Schools officials have acknowledged that the District 3 seat, currently held by appointee Glenda Williams, should have been on the May 17 ballot along with the seats for Districts 5 and 7.

Williams took office on Nov. 2, 2020, as the replacement for elected District 3 member Rob Rivers, who resigned two years into his term. State law requires that when a school board member resigns, his or her appointed replacement will only "serve until the next election of members."

But when the ballot for May's election in Granville County was set, the only school board seats voters got a chance to fill were those for Districts 5 and 7, which were coming due in their normal six-year rotation.

The applicable rule concerning the District 3 seat "was discussed with the Board of Education at the time the seat was vacated in 2020," Eva DuBuisson, the school system's lawyer, said via a written statement that district officials relayed to The Dispatch.

But "when filing was opened in late 2021 only Districts 5 and 7 were on the list," DuBuisson said.

"Near the end of the filing period the Board of Elections counsel contacted me to verify they had the correct seats listed, and I checked the applicable local legislation and responded that Districts 5 and 7 should be up for re-election," she continued.

She added that "no Board of Education members were consulted or involved in any way."

The Granville election board's lawyer is County Attorney Jim Wrenn, who when asked said DuBoisson's written statement "accurately describes the situation." He did not elaborate on whether the elections board has any internal safeguards of its own designed to prevent such an oversight.

The error means that Williams will now serve out the balance of Rivers' term, as the District 3 seat would have been up for grabs in 2024, the next school board election on the schedule, even if Rivers had remained in office.

Putting the seat on this November's ballot was not an option, and the elections board does "not have legal authority to hold a special election," DuBuisson said.

"It appears, therefore, that the seat cannot be placed on ballot until the next board of education election, in 2024," she said.

Like Wrenn, Granville Elections Director Tonya Burnette deferred to DuBuisson's statement and declined to comment separately.

The error sets up an unusual situation in 2024 where voters will have the chance to elect a majority of the seven-member school board in one go. In addition to the District 3 seat, the seat for District 4 currently held by Leonard Peace will appear on the ballot in its normal six-year cycle.

The District 2 and 7 seats also will have to go on the 2024 ballot, outside their normal cycle.

District 2 normally would be contested next in 2026, but incumbent Tom Houlihan resigned this summer, after the May election. District 7 normally wouldn't be up again until 2028, but incumbent David Richardson died in September, not quite four months after winning reelection.

The school board has appointed Helen Lindsey to the District 2 seat and Taylor Frederick to the District 7 seat. Lindsey was sworn in this month, and Frederick will take the oath of office next month.

Ordinarily, no more than three seats on the board are up for grabs in any given election, and in most elections only two are on the ballot.

All told, the school board has needed to appoint someone to a vacant seat five times since 2019.

Former member Toney Smith's 2019 resignation from the District 1 seat started a cycle that's continued with the resignations of Rivers, Houlihan and former District 5 member Ed Mims, and now the death of Richardson.

The District 5 seat is currently held by Gregory McKnight, who got it after Mims stepped down in favor of serving on Creedmoor's city council. McKnight didn't run for a full term and will be replaced by newly elected member Danielle Hayes in December.

Contact Ray Gronberg at rgronberg@hendersondispatch.com or by phone at 252-436-2850.