Starkville School District Board of Trustees member Eric Heiselt tendered his letter of resignation with the city late last week, and Starkville aldermen are expected to hold a special-call meeting to fill his seat before Oktibbeha County School District merges with SSD Wednesday.
Heiselt’s tenure ends at the conclusion of Tuesday’s final SSD meeting before the group takes over leadership responsibilities associated with the Starkville-Oktibbeha Consolidated School District.
His replacement could be former school board president Eddie Myles, whom Heiselt recommended take his seat in his resignation letter.
Mayor Parker Wiseman said he also backs Myles’ appointment.
Heiselt’s term expires in 2017, and consolidation legislation mandates his seat become an elected one represented by a resident who lives outside SSD’s extended territory.
A special-call meeting could occur Tuesday, Wiseman said, since city attorney Chris Latimer advised the city to appoint a new school board member before Wednesday’s consolidation.
Heiselt and his family are moving to Nevada, where he and his wife both accepted jobs at the University of Nevada. He has served as a school board member since 2011.
“I appreciate the opportunity to serve on the school board, and I’m honored to have worked with the teachers, students and community. I know the school district is in great hands with the current leadership. Great things will continue to occur in the consolidated school system,” he said. “I hope our community will come together stronger than it has and support the process. These things are all happening for the betterment of students, not our egos or politics.”
Wiseman thanked Heiselt for his service and said he was an asset to the community as a school board member.
“He served through the duration of the development of plans to consolidate the district. We wish him the best in his endeavors,” Wiseman said.
Myles is the right person for the job, Heiselt said, as he “knows consolidation inside and out, has an understanding of the inner workings of the school board and has shown an unwavering commitment to students and the community.”
“I hope everything goes well (at the special-call meeting) so I can serve again,” Myles said. “Before I left, I said I wanted to see consolidation through. This would be a great opportunity to do that.”
Aldermen replaced Myles, a two-term board member, with Juliette Weaver-Reese after he failed to apply for the position in a timely manner.
Wiseman put Myles on the agenda to interview for his third term, but the board, led by Ward 2 Alderman Lisa Wynn, pulled his application and allotted time.
The appointment process yielded tense public criticism and separate Open Meetings Act and ethics complaints after Wynn said aldermen sometimes “have to make decisions behind the scenes” and Ward 7 Alderman Henry Vaughn, who was previously warned not to vote in school-related matters by the Mississippi Ethics Commission, participated in the night’s action.
After the 2014 meeting, Vaughn said he did not recuse from the vote because his daughter, who worked for SSD at the time, did not live with him.
Both Ward 4 Alderman Jason Walker and Ward 5 Alderman Scott Maynard recused themselves from the process as they have or had family members working for the school district.
The ethics committee dismissed the Open Meetings Act complaint against Wynn in March after ruling the 2014 discussion and vote occurred in a public setting. In Wynn’s defense, Latimer argued that the first-term alderman misspoke at the board table.
The status of Vaughn’s ethics complaint is unknown.
Carl Smith covers Starkville and Oktibbeha County for The Dispatch. Follow him on Twitter @StarkDispatch
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