All for naught

An ongoing effort to change the way members are elected to the Clay Central/Everly school board hit another snag recently.

Board members on March 30 rescinded a resolution that changed the residential location requirements of district directors. According Board Secretary Diane White, CC/E "jumped the gun" in passing the changes in February.

"We could not adopt the plan now," White said. "We had to rescind it and will put back on our Nov. 30, 2022, agenda to approve at that time."

According to law verbiage provided by White, changes to board elections must take place "no earlier than Nov. 15 of the second year immediately following the year in which the federal decennial census is taken and no later than May 15 of the third year immediately following the year in which the federal decennial census is taken."

The board in March 2021 agreed to move forward with changes to current director districts. Previously, all voting CC/E constituents elected each board member from the director district in which the candidate resided. Members were required to live in the district they represented.

The setup made it difficult to find candidates in recent years. In an effort to remedy the situation, the board wants the rules changed so two members (Districts 1 and 2) must reside north of county road B24 while two must reside south of B24 (Districts 4 and 5). District 3 will now be an at-large spot, and the seat holder can reside anywhere inside the district.

Current board members Allison Goyette and Barb Trierweiler would represent the south side of the district while Allyn Heikens and Denny Dalen would represent the north. Board Member Brian Schmidt would hold the at-large seat.