Scott Gatlin’s resignation from the Jackson-Madison County School Board that was officially announced and accepted by the Madison County Commission in June isn’t a new situation for either legislative body.
Since 2018, the school board has had three members resign prior to Gatlin’s resignation.
Filling the open spot falls to the County Commission. Here’s how that process has played out with resignations in the last five years.
The previous three school board members who resigned were Morris Merriweather and Shannon Stewart in 2020 and O’Neal Henley in 2021. Merriweather was replaced by Carol Carter-Estes McCright. Stewart was replaced by Gatlin, and Henley was replaced by Kenneth Newman.
According to state code, the County Commission is the one who appoints the new school board member, and that person will fill that seat until the next county election.
That means that even though Gatlin’s term still has three years remaining on it, the one who is appointed for the seat will serve for a year before having to run for election if he or she wants to continue serving. That election will be next year when four school board seats are set to be up for election anyway.
In all three instances, the County Commission took applications for the seat and confirmed with the Election Commission that the applicants did live in the district of that school board seat.
Officially, the Commission will vote at their next meeting, which is scheduled to be in August, based on the applicants. A Commissioner will nominate a person, and any other Commissioners who want to nominate anyone will be allowed to do so. If more than one person is nominated, the process essentially becomes a mini-election among the 25 Commissioners.
Before that Commission meeting, however, are typically a few times for the applicants to speak before groups of Commissioners to campaign for the seat.
The Republican caucus is one group that typically hears from the applicants. Before Newman was selected in 2021, the Jackson Equity Project also hosted a forum between two applicants for the position.
After Merriweather’s resignation in February of 2020, the Republican caucus hosted interested applicants wishing to speak, and four of five were present and addressed the group. The caucus met after their presentations and seemingly settled on an applicant they were in favor of.
But the following week at the County Commission meeting in March of 2020, Commissioner Claudell Brown, who’s been on the Commission for more than 40 years, discussed an unofficial gentleman’s agreement among Commissioners that dates back a few decades that when an opening like this comes up and the Commissioners whose district is impacted by the school board district being discussed makes a recommendation, the Commission typically goes with that recommendation.
McCright was the fifth applicant who didn’t speak at the Republican caucus, so she wasn’t the one the caucus – who had more than the needed 13 Commissioners present that night – voted to appoint.
McCright was recommended by Brown, and some members of the Republican caucus broke away from their group and went with the gentleman’s agreement and voted for McCright, giving her the 13 she needed to be appointed to the Board.
Since there is no county commission or school board meeting scheduled for July, the selection won’t be made until their next regular monthly meeting on Aug. 21. Anyone wanting to apply can send their resume to Sarah McClain, the administrative coordinator for the Commission, at smcclain@madisoncountytn.gov. The deadline to apply is Aug. 11, which is the mandatory 10 days before the next meeting.
Brandon Shields, brandon@jacksonpost.news
