The North Little Rock School District is seeking applicants to temporarily fill the School Board Zone 4 vacancy created by the recent death of School Board member Ron Treat.
The board voted 6-0 at a special meeting Monday to take letters of interest and resumes through June 17 from people interested in being appointed to serve on the board until a permanent board member is elected in the annual school election later this year.
Board members will hold a special meeting at 5:30 p.m. June 21 to hear presentations from all applicants for the vacant seat and then select a new board member.
The appointed member will join a board that is overseeing the final stages of a $265 million capital construction program and in the early stages of forming a conversion charter school centered on career preparation within North Little Rock High School.
The person appointed to fill the board seat will be eligible to run for election Sept. 20 to a full three-year term on the board as long as the person is a resident of the district's Zone 4, which encompasses the northwest part of the city that includes much of the Amboy and Levy neighborhoods. School Board election zone maps are available for viewing on the district's website, www.nlrsd.org, or at the district administration building, 2700 N. Poplar St., North Little Rock.
Letters of interest and resumes for the short-term board appointment should be sent by 5 p.m. on deadline day to Rhonda Colquitt, North Little Rock School District Administration Building, Post Office Box 687, North Little Rock, Ark., 72115, or emailed to Superintendent Kelly Rodgers at rodgerske@nlrsd.org.
Questions about the board position should be directed to Rodgers at (501) 771-8006 or to Deputy Superintendent Beth Stewart, (501) 771-8010. The summer office hours for the district's administration building are 7:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Monday through Thursday.
By law, a school board has 30 days from the first day a board seat is vacant to fill the seat. If the board fails to make the appointment within that time period, the authority to make the appointment is assumed by the county's quorum court. It is left to a school board to decide whether to advertise for and take applications or use a less formal process for filling a vacancy.
The Zone 4 seat will be open for election Sept. 20. The filing period for that election is July 5 through July 12 in the Pulaski County clerk's office.
School board positions are unpaid. School board members are required by law to annually file financial disclosure information and undergo annual school board training.
Treat, 67, was nearing the completion of his third, three-year term on the School Board at the time of his death May 30. He was a store manager for Summerwood Partners and a retired major from the Army National Guard.
He had graduated from North Little Rock School District and had a bachelor's degree from Harding University and a master's of business administration from Abilene Christian University. He also was a graduate of the Command and General Staff College in the military.
Metro on 06/07/2016