Lincoln County School Board members Kay Coon’s and Johnny Hart’s seats should be up for grabs in November, according to the Secretary of State’s office, but Lincoln County’s rotation is out of sync with the rest of the state.

The SOS website says county school boards statewide should hold elections for Districts 1 and 2 this year.

County school board members serve for six-year terms, but the elections for Coon (District 1) and Hart (District 2) weren’t held until 2012, and their term didn’t start until 2013. This puts the end of their term on the first Monday 2019.

There are similar issues for the other districts. Elections for Districts 3 and 4 should have taken place in 2012, but they took place in 2015. District 3 board member Ricky Welch and District 4 board member Diane Gill have been serving on the board only since January this year, and their term will not expire until 2022.

The District 5 election should have been held in 2014, but board member Michael Posey was elected in 2010, and his term started in 2011.

Posey’s term does expire at the end of this year, however the problem remains that if elections were held for District 5 in November, that seat would remain out of sync with the rest of the state.

County School Superintendent Mickey Myers said board attorney Jim Keith met with Attorney General Jim Hood to come up with the proposed solution. When a board member’s term expires, the board will appoint someone to fill the vacancy until the correct election date, he said.

District 1 and 2 seats will be appointed from 2019-2023, District 3 and 4 seats will be appointed from 2022-2025 and the District 5 seat would be appointed from 2017-2021.

This puts the next LCSD school board election in 2020 for District 5. That board member will start on the first Monday of 2021.

Myers said it would have been unfair to Hart and Coon to cut their terms short because of the cost associated with running a campaign.

“To be fair to the current board members — to allow them to serve their complete six-year term, our board attorney made a proposition to Jim Hood’s office and it was accepted,” Myers said.

Myers said he didn’t know when or how the board’s seats got out of sync with the rest of the state because it happened before he was elected as superintendent, though an article published Aug. 22, 2015 in The Daily Leader says that District 3 and 4 seats were left off the ballots accidentally.

Lincoln County Circuit Clerk Dustin Bairfield said his office only places on the ballot what the district sends them, and there will be no county school board positions on the November ballot.

“In this case, the school board is trying to get consistent with the state statute,” he said.