Full disclosure: Lawyer and former school board member Lee Cotner, who represented New Albanian Bank Street Brewhouse back in 2013 when the Floyd County Health Department’s Dr. Tom Harris was a bit too haughty for his own damned good, and eventually was smacked down vigorously by various state agencies as well as compelling the enactment of legislation to keep him in his place — wait, where was I?
Oh, that’s right: Lee Cotner has been appointed to fill the District Two school board seat weirdly vacated by D.J. Hines, and with the News and Tribune yet again down a reporter, the SoIn newspaper was late to a pre-selection plot line explored by the C-J.
NAFC school board vacancy concerns NAACP leader, by Kirsten Clark (Courier-Journal)
New Albany-Floyd County School Board is expected to swear in a new member Monday evening following the resignation of DJ Hines, ending a process a local NAACP leader says lacked transparency and raises concerns about minority representation on the district’s governing board.
“I am disappointed the school board has missed an opportunity to make itself more reflective of the community in which it serves,” said Nicole Yates, president of the New Albany NAACP, in an email to the Courier-Journal. “The student population in Floyd County schools is 22 percent minority. Yet there is zero minority representation on the school board.”
She continued: “Just last year the school board expressed disappointment that a minority school leader was not chosen at New Albany High School. The recent vacancy would have been a chance for them to lead by example while demonstrating that the same standard that they argued for New Albany High School applies to the board.”
The N & T did muster an unattributed preview, and minimalist coverage of the actual meeting.
NA-FC Schools board votes to fill vacancy; Members vote 4-1 for Lee Cotner with one abstention, by John Boyle
… Board members approved Cotner in a 4-1 vote with one abstention. Cotner will serve for two years to finish the term of D.J. Hines, who unexpectedly resigned roughly one month ago.
Cotner previously served two stints on the NA-FC school board. His first term stretched from 2002 to 2006 after he was elected as an original member of the first school board. In 2012, Cotner was reappointed by board members to fill an opening.
And the selection process?
“The only thing that they had to qualify was that they had to live in the district,” board president Becky Gardenour said. “We got 10 letters. I checked with the county clerk to make sure everybody lived in the district, and three people didn’t meet that requirement. We got lots of good candidates. All of them were qualified.”
