Time is running out for Blue Mountain school board members to have an exclusive right to appoint a successor to a board member who resigned last month.
On Tuesday, the eight remaining board members gathered for a special meeting at Blue Mountain Middle School to potentially name a replacement for Roy Heim, who resigned in frustration on Aug. 5. But after about three hours meeting, the board is not much closer to naming a replacement than it was at the beginning of the process.
During their special meeting on Tuesday, the field of candidates who stepped forward to replace Heim after his resignation was accepted on Aug. 5 had been winnowed down to four: Kim Breiner, Robert Gardner, Krista Kantner, and Alicia Keller.
Those four candidates were publicly interviewed at Tuesday’s meeting as about 15 people who attended the meeting looked on. Each was asked the same nine questions, one by each board member and Superintendent Dr. Jason Lilly. Before being questioned, the candidates were sequestered in the middle school office so they couldn’t hear responses being given in the cafetorium, where the meeting was held.
Questions ranged from the biggest strengths and challenges facing the district to the role of school board members and their interaction with district administration and staff.
Following questioning, Lilly suggested the eight board members share their top two picks for the open seat. Those selections aligned perfectly with the two factions that have formed among the board members.
Board members Michelle Vesay, Janice Blair, Tim Grube, and John Campomizzi all picked Kantner as their first choice and Gardner as their second. Board members Becky Miller, Roseanne Zelusky, Krista Strause, and Megan Troutman-Meisner all picked Breiner as their top pick, followed by Keller.
Motions were then made to appoint each of the final four to the open seat created by Heim’s departure and each vote failed due to a 4-4 deadlock.
Blair told Coal Region Canary after Tuesday’s meeting that she did consider what each candidate said during their on-site interview. That was part of her decision. She said she also did research on each of the candidates and also relied on her “gut intuition” before picking Kantner and Gardner. She said she wanted someone who was “for the students” and “for the community.”
“Those were the two that I thought were best for that,” Blair said.
Meisner said her vote was her own, despite the coincidental alignment of the tallies among the two factions on the board.
“There’s nothing I can do about that. I can only speak for myself and who I vote for,” she said. “I think I put forward who I thought would be the best for the position. I can’t be responsible for how other people vote.”
Meisner, who at a previous meeting, urged the board to adopt a formal process for selecting Heim’s replacement, was happy that some form of process was followed despite it resulting in tie votes and an impasse.
“It had to be done this way,” she said. “You can’t just say we’re going to do nothing. We have to at least make an attempt, which is what we did. I always vote for what I think is best and that’s what I did tonight. I would have loved to fill this seat but it is what it is.”
Ticking Clock
The board’s exclusive time on selecting Heim’s replacement, albeit temporarily, is running short. It had 30 days from when his resignation was accepted to appoint someone. After that 30 days, the Schuylkill County Court of Common Pleas can get involved.
That window closes at the end of the day Friday.
If the eight remaining board members don’t agree on a replacement by then, the seat doesn’t automatically land before a Common Pleas judge, however. Somebody has to petition the court to name a replacement. Under the state’s school code, that takes a petition signed by 10 or more people who live in the district and pay taxes to it.
Even then, the calendar buys the board a few extra days. The Courthouse is closed Saturday and Sunday, and Monday is Labor Day. The earliest anyone could actually file is Tuesday, Sept. 8.
And that petition wouldn’t be a vote for anybody in particular. It only asks a judge to fill the seat. The judge does the choosing and could land on someone the petitioners never brought up. The one requirement is that the person be a registered voter in the district.
Missing Friday’s deadline also doesn’t take the decision away from the board. It can still make the appointment itself, right up until a judge beats it to the punch.
Whoever gets the seat won’t hold it long. The appointment runs only until the first Monday of December 2027. The rest of Heim’s term goes on the November 2027 election. Whoever wins that vote next year would hold office until the end of 2029.
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