Ozark State Representative Jamie Ray Gragg is expressing concerns with the Ozark School Board and the upcoming appointment to fill the position vacated by Guy Callaway.
Gragg issued a statement saying “I am asking the Ozark School Board to reconsider and do the right thing by allowing the voters of the school district to vote for who they would like to fill the board position vacated by Guy Callaway after his move out of the district.”
The school board’s attorney says it would be appropriate to appoint a replacement rather than put the seat on the ballot.
Gragg says Callaway’s resignation was accepted on December19th, leaving 12 days for prospective candidates to file for the seat.
The Ozark School Board issued a public statement Tuesday evening following Gragg’s concerns:
The Ozark R-VI School District has no authority to “reconsider” the rules that govern filing for and election to the Board of Education. That process is governed entirely by state statutory and case law:
1. Missouri law requires the Board of Education to publish notice of the election on or before the 17th Tuesday preceding the election. That deadline for the April 2025 election was December 10, 2024.
2. Missouri law also requires the Board to include the following information in the published notice: (1) the opening filing date, (2) the office or offices to be filled, (3) the place for filing, and (4) the closing date for filing.
3. As required by law, the district published timely notice that (1) two seats would be open for the April 2025 election; (2) the first date for filing would be December 10, 2024; (3) the location for filing was the district office; and (4) the closing date for filing would be December 31, 2024.
4. Once that notice was published and the filing period had begun, the number of seats to be filled by election in April was final. Additional vacancies could not be added because the statutory notice requirement for any additional seat could not be fulfilled.
5. There is no method by which an individual can file for a vacancy that did not exist and was not published prior to the filing period.
6. Therefore, there is no mechanism by which an individual’s name can appear on the ballot in April of 2025 for the unexpired term.
7. The fact that an appointee can serve until April 2026 under the current circumstances is solely a result of the requirement that candidates file for office in the manner prescribed by the General Assembly for each April election.
8. These requirements are part of a larger statutory framework adopted by the General Assembly that is intended to protect the integrity of all elections. These requirements are mandatory, not merely directory, and must be honored.
Therefore, an individual may not request to file for a vacancy that did not exist when the notice of election was published. Additionally, a person may not request to be placed on the ballot for a vacancy that will not exist until after filing has closed. For example, in this case, the resignation was not effective until December 31, 2024. The notice of resignation was provided on December 19, but the effective date was December 31. The Board has no authority to declare a date of resignation earlier than the effective date in the notice.
In summary, the school district is not bypassing the April 2025 election. It is just following the notification and filing requirements established under the election laws adopted by the Missouri General Assembly. The district was required by law to publish a notice of election on or before December 10, 2024. That notice, as required by law, listed the number of open seats to be filled in the April 2025 election, as that number existed when the notice was published – specifically, two seats. The district cannot accept candidate filings for a vacancy that did not exist and was not included in the election notice that preceded the filing period. And in this case, the vacancy will not even exist until after the filing period has closed. Therefore, there is no mechanism to place the vacancy on the April 2025 ballot. That is the only reason that a person appointed to fill the new vacancy would serve until April 2026. The district is not excluding voters from the process. It is just following the law. The Board had no authority, previously and has no authority now to declare and accept filing for a third open seat for the April 2025 election.
With respect to the residency issue, the board also has no authority to remove or expel a board member for residency or any other reason. That action must be taken by a court. However, Missouri law concerning residency and removal of elected officials favors the officials — and it is very difficult to prevail in such actions (which are long, drawn out, time-consuming, and expensive for the plaintiff). For example, some will remember that the Missouri Supreme Court found that former Governor Kit Bond was found eligible to run for governor in 1972 (which office had and has a ten-year, in-state residency requirement) – although he had been absent from the state for the majority of the immediately preceding ten years and all of the typical factors regarding residency (voting, job locations, marriage license, vehicle registrations, physical residence locations, etc.), indicated that he was not eligible to run. Subsequent cases regarding officeholder and candidate residency, including cases directly involving school board members, have resulted in similar decisions.
As explained above, the district is just following the law. However, it is also making an effort to include interested individuals in the process. The law requires the Board to appoint a replacement. But the law neither prohibits nor requires an application process. That process is optional under Board policy. Nevertheless, the Board has adopted and published on its website a process by which interested individuals may submit an application for appointment to the vacancy and provide as much information as they wish in support of the application. We encourage all interested persons to engage in the application process.
Ozark School Board
