School board member gets to retain post
No candidate qualified by a March 1 filing deadline to be placed on the ballot for election May 9 to the Jacksonville/North Pulaski School Board’s at-large No. 2 seat.
As a result, Ron McDaniel — the current board member in the position who tried unsuccessfully to file for reelection — can continue to hold the seat for another full term, which is four years.
Because there will be no candidates running for election in the district this year and no proposed change in the district’s school tax rate, the School Board agreed Monday night to conduct a legally required annual vote on the school tax rate via early and absentee voting. No polling places will be open on election day in the district.
McDaniel took steps to file as a candidate for reelection by last week’s filing deadline, but some signatures on his petition for candidacy were disqualified by the Pulaski County clerk’s office. That left McDaniel without enough petition signatures and not enough time to collect more to be eligible to be put on the ballot.
However, no one else filed as a candidate for the board seat in the 4,000-student district. As a result, McDaniel has become a “holdover” board member.
Scott Richardson, an attorney for the school district, told the School Board at its monthly business meeting Monday that Arkansas Code Annotated 6-13608 allows a “holdover” candidate to serve one full term.
At the expiration of the holdover term — which in McDaniel’s case would be in 2027 — the board member must either seek election and win the election, or the remaining board members must declare the seat vacant and appoint someone to hold the seat. Only one “holdover” term is permitted by the law.
“You get one mulligan,” Richardson told board members about holdover terms.
McDaniel retired in 2012 as a colonel and commander of the 189th Maintenance Group, Arkansas Air National Guard at Little Rock Air Force Base.
His leadership with the district dates back to the 2014 establishment of the district.
The Jacksonville district was formed that year after voters in the region opted to detach from the Pulaski County Special School District.
Based on that vote, the Arkansas Board of Education ordered the creation of the district and appointed an interim School Board — including McDaniel — to begin the work of dividing assets and liabilities between the new district and the Pulaski County Special district, and otherwise prepare the Jacksonville/ North Pulaski district for operating on its own.
McDaniel later ran for and won election to the board that replaced the state-appointed board.
The at-large seat held by McDaniel is one of two on the seven-member board. Candidates for at-large seats are chosen by district-wide voters. Five members of the Jacksonville board are elected from zones in the district.
Board members are unpaid. People seeking to be candidates for school board seats in Arkansas have to qualify by submitting a political practices pledge, an affidavit of eligibility and a petition signed by at least 20 registered voters who are residents of the school district and, if applicable, the election zone for the position. Those documents go to the county clerk.
Jacksonville/North Pulaski is the only school district in Pulaski County to schedule annual school elections for the spring. The Little Rock, North Little Rock and Pulaski County Special districts hold their elections in November.