Mississippi Advisory Opinions July 19, 1985: 19850719 (July 19, 1985)

Advisory Opinion Text

Honorable Calvin A. Moore

Circuit Clerk of Holmes County

Lexington, Mississippi 39095

Dear Mr. Moore:

Attorney General Pittman has received your letter of request and has assigned it to me for research and reply. You submit the following:

We have had a vacancy to occur in the Holmes County School Board, whose term would have expired December 31, 1986. If I understand correctly, according to the Mississippi Code 37-5-19, the other school board members may appoint someone to serve until the next General Election, which in the past would have been November 1986.

You state correctly that Mississippi Code Annotated Section 37-5-19 (1972) provides the manner in which vacancies on a county board of education are to be filled:

Vacancies in the membership of the county board of education shall be filled by appointment, within 60 days after the vacancy occurs, by the remaining members of the county board of education. Said appointee shall be selected from the qualified electors of the district in which the vacancy occurs, and shall serve until the first Monday of January next succeeding the next general election, at which general election a member shall be elected to fill the remainder of the unexpired term in the same manner and with the same qualifications applicable to the election of a member for the full term.

In the event the vacancy occurs more than five months prior to the next general election and the remaining members of the county board of education are unable to agree upon an individual to be appointed, any two of the remaining members may certify such disagreement to the county election commission. Upon the receipt of such a certificate by the county election commission, or any member thereof, the commission shall hold a special election to fill the vacancy, which said election, notice thereof and ballot shall be controlled by the laws concerning special elections to fill vacancies in county or county district offices. The person elected at such a special election shall serve for the remainder of the unexpired term.

Under the facts which you present to us, if the remaining members of the Holmes County Board of Education can agree on an appointment to fill the vacancy, in this instance the appointee would serve the remainder of the unexpired term inasmuch as the next general election is November 4, 1986.

Very truly yours,

Edwin Lloyd Pittman, Attorney General.