After nearly an hour and a half of discussion, voting and re-voting, the Callaway Board of Education finally elected a president for 2023.

The School Board met on Tuesday, Jan. 10, and the first meeting of a new year always begins with election of officers. The school superintendent presides over the meeting until a president is elected, who then takes over.

Superintendent Bryon Hanson opened the meeting by swearing in new board member Vincent Guthrie who replaces outgoing member Duane Kimball. Hanson then opened the floor to nominations for the office of president of the board, and current president Liana Hrupek was quickly nominated to retain her seat by current board secretary Rhonda Pandorf. Board member TR Anderson then nominated Jim Phelps for president.

While the board typically does a roll call vote, in cases of more than one nominee or option on an issue paper ballots are cast. Hanson collected and read the ballots, which resulted in a split decision - three votes for Hrupek, three votes for Phelps.

Following a brief discussion ballots were cast again, and the result was the same. Pandorf then explained that while she believes Phelps would indeed make a good president, she is concerned about his lack of experience in having served only two years on the board. She said she nominated Hrupek because of her experience and because she has served the district well.

Ballots were cast a third time, and once again the board was divided right down the middle. Hanson then went through the school policies pertaining to electing board officers, and there is no written protocol for dealing with a tie vote. It was quickly determined that is something that needs to be addressed; but of course that can’t happen until officers are elected.

The policy reads that there must be a majority decision. In this case, that means four board members must vote in favor for a candidate to be elected or a motion to pass.

Discussion was held prior to voting a fourth time, and again Phelps inexperience was called into play. “I have been on this board for six years, and I can honestly say that this is the first year I would even feel at all comfortable taking on the role of president,” said Mike Reiff as he addressed Phelps. “I do understand that change can be a good thing, but I also think there is a lot to be said for consistency. There is just a lot to learn.”

Phelps noted that he has had issues with Hrupek as president. “I have proposed in the past to put things on the agenda, and those have been rebuffed,” said Phelps. He asked Reiff if he would be willing to put suggestions on the agenda, even if it is something he disagrees with. Reiff said it would depend on the topic, but he would certainly be willing to consider it.

Hrupek then nominated Reiff for president. That vote resulted in three votes for Hrupek, two for Phelps and one for Reiff. On to round five, and they were right back where they started - three for Hrupek, three for Phelps.

The tension between the board was thick as neither side was willing to concede and stuck firmly by their candidate. “I would hate to think that this is the way the board is going to operate this year, that every time there is a vote we’re going to have a split across our board,” said Reiff. “The board is for the good of the kids, the building and the community.”

Round six - three votes for Hrupek, two for Phelps, one for Reiff. Round seven - three for Hrupek, three for Phelps. Round eight - three for Hrupek, three for Phelps. Round nine - two for Hrupek, two for Phelps, two for Reiff. Round 10 - three votes for Reiff, two for Phelps and one for Hrupek. Round 11 was an exact repeat of Round 10.

In between voting rounds there was a great deal of discussion - and quite a bit of silence - before casting the next ballots. Finally, in voting round number 12, a majority decision was had - four votes for Reiff, two votes for Phelps. Mike Reiff is the new Callaway School Board president.

Next came the election of Vice President. Pandorf nominated Hrupek, and Phelps nominated Pandorf. Paper ballots were again cast, and once again the vote was split - three for Hrupek, three for Pandorf. A second vote was taken with the same result. Prior to a third vote, Hrupek nominated Phelps and ballots were cast for three candidates. That round ended with three votes for Phelps, two for Pandorf and one for Hrupek.

Round four of voting for vice president had the same result as round three. As the board prepared for round five, Pandorf nominated TR Anderson. That really split up the votes in that round, with Phelps earning three votes, Pandorf two, Hrupek one and Anderson one. Finally, in the sixth round of voting, Pandorf was elected vice president by earning five votes to Anderson’s one.

Thankfully, the other two board offices went very smoothly. Hrupek was unanimously elected board secretary and Phelps was unanimously voted in as board treasurer, the position he held last year.

Following the election of officers the organization portion of the meeting continued as board members were appointed to the various committees, and district representatives were appointed. Amy Birkel has agreed to continue as secretary of the board and was appointed to that position. The Callaway Courier was appointed official district newspaper, and Superintendent Hanson was appointed as authorized representative for federal funds and as district non-discrimination compliance coordinator.

We will take a look at items discussed during the regular business meeting in next week’s Courier.