North Little Rock School Board reverses appointment

The North Little Rock School Board voted Friday to rescind the Oct. 12 appointment of R. Hannah Chambers to the board and will now leave it to the Pulaski County Quorum Court to fill the vacant Zone 5 seat.

The confusion surrounding Chambers’ appointment to represent a school election zone in which she doesn’t reside generated two special School Board meetings on Friday, an apology from an Arkansas School Boards Association attorney and a board redo of a vote to give $2,500 bonuses to all district employees.

The board voted 4-0 Friday evening in support of the bonus that will be distributed Nov. 22.

The newly appointed Chambers participated in the board’s Oct 19 votes approving bonuses for state-licensed employees and support staff. While the vote for the support staff bonus was unanimous in its support, the first vote on the bonus for the certified staff was divided. It was recorded as 4-3 in favor of the bonus, including a no vote by board member Darrell Montgomery, who was out of the room at the time of the vote.

With Chambers’ appointment rescinded and her yes vote now thrown out, the resulting vote from Oct. 19 was a 3-3 tie that defeated the $2,500 bonus to 713 teachers and other licensed employees. The board’s vote Friday reverses that and ensures the payment of the one-time bonus.

Chambers read a statement after the board’s unanimous vote to rescind her appointment to the nonpaid seat, expressing her frustration the Arkansas School Boards Association didn’t provide accurate information on her eligibility for the spot.

“I’m disappointed I will not be able to serve the students, staff, and patrons of the North Little Rock district,” she said. “I embraced and was excited to help affect change in the North Little Rock community.”

Jay Bequette of the Bequette & Billingsley law firm told the board it had the option of appointing someone else to fill the Zone 5 vacancy or referring the vacancy to the Pulaski County Quorum Court since the North Little Rock board failed to fill the seat with a valid appointee within the 30 days allowed by law for the board to do so.

Friday marked the 35th day since former board member Scott Teague’s resignation.

Bequette cited Arkansas Code Annotated 6-13-611(c) saying a vacancy shall be filled by the appointment of an individual who is a “qualified elector of the school district and who resides in the same zone, if applicable.”

Since the district elects its board members by election zones —with one member per zone — Arkansas law requires the person appointed to fill the vacancy must reside in the same zone as the elected member who resigned, Bequette said.

The same section of the statute also says a vacancy shall be filled by a majority vote of the remaining school board members or by the county quorum court. The quorum court is called on to act if, as a result of several vacancies on the school board, only a minority of board members remain or if the school board fails to fill the vacancy within 30 days.

“The cleanest course of action would be to inform the Quorum Court of a need for an appointee,” Bequette told the board.

While the state law describes the process, it has rarely if ever been exercised in Pulaski County. Bequette said he didn’t recall it ever being used in his 30-year practice in the area of education law.

Board member Luke King made the motion to refer the vacancy to the Quorum Court. It was approved 5-0 with King, Steele, Sandi Campbell, Dorothy Williams and Taniesha Richardson-Wiley voting for it. Board member Darrell Montgomery was absent.