City school board election coming up, county school board vacancy filled with incumbent

New Albany will elect a new city school board member in addition to the usual municipal elections for mayor, aldermen and police chief this year according to election officials.

The elections won’t be at the same time, however.

Regular municipal primaries will be April 6 with a general election June 8. The school trustee won’t be voted on until Nov. 2, in the special regular election.

The New Albany Municipal Separate School District has five trustees. Four are appointed by the mayor and board of aldermen while a fifth is elected from residents in the so-called added territory outside the corporate limits, mostly a large area in the northeast part of the county that is outside city limits but still is the city school district.

Trustees serve staggered five-year terms. The added territory must furnish 15 percent of the city students to have a representative; if it furnished 30 percent the added territory would get two trustees instead of one.

The current trustee from the added territory is David Rainey. Rainey defeated Lisa Parker five years ago to win the seat that had been held by Jerry Tate for nearly 16 years before retiring.

The qualifying period for the city school board seat this year will be Wednesday, Aug. 4, through Friday, Sept. 3.

To qualify to run for the school board one must be a certified elector, a resident of the added territory the past two years, and not have been convicted of any of a list of mostly felony crimes. The candidate must have a high school diploma or equivalent and, upon election and taking office, complete a basic training course within six months and certify continuing education each year.

New Albany school trustees include David Rainey, Jill Shaw, Barbara Washington, Mark Garrett and Ren Nelson.

Union County School Board fills vacancy but still has unexpired term

The Union County School District also has a trustee election coming up, but apparently not this year.

Unlike the city school district, all five county school trustees are elected.

The post of trustee representing Union County School District Five, in the East Union area, was on the ballot this past November but no one qualified. At least two persons, including incumbent Wayne Mahon, were reported interested but did not submit candidacy papers by the deadline, citing illness as reasons.

State law does not address dealing with a case of having no candidate, but it does address filling vacancies and, with no one elected, a District Five vacancy occurred Jan. 1.

The law allows the four remaining county school trustees to appoint a replacement within 60 days and permanently fill the post for the remainder of the term at the next regular general election. This November will see a special election instead.

The incumbent county school board appointed Wayne Mahon to the post he has held Jan. 2 and he will serve until the election.

According to Mississippi Code, trustees serve staggered six-year terms.

Current county school trustees include Terry Cook, District 1; Mickey Basil, District 2; Mike Browning, District 3; Daphnia McMillen, District 4; and Wayne Mahon, District 5.

The county school districts do not occupy the same area as the county supervisors’ districts, partly due to shifting caused by the presence of the city school added territory.

The map below shows the city and county school districts. The city district and added territory appear in orange in the center and upper right on the map.