Crunkleton Comments on BOE Appointments

Stephens County Board of Education Chair Tony Crunkleton welcomes Bill Wheeler to the board.

Crunkleton spoke Wednesday on the school board’s choice of Wheeler to fill the vacancy on the Board of Education created by Jeff Webb’s resignation in April.

Wheeler was chosen from a group of six candidates in a unanimous vote by the Board of Education on Tuesday.

Crunkleton said the choice of Wheeler is one the Board looked at very closely.

“It was a difficult choice because we feel like any of the candidates would have been good candidates,” said Crunkleton. “The Board felt that Mr. Wheeler just had a little bit more to offer. We just felt like he would be a good fit for the members that are also already on the Board and everybody felt that way. Everybody had him as their number one choice, so that made it pretty clear cut.”

Also on Tuesday, the Board of Education appointed Mark Smith to fill the seat vacated when Jim Ledford resigned in May.

Smith had defeated Ledford in the May election and was set to take that board seat in January for a four-year term, so Crunkleton says it made sense to nominate Smith now to take that seat and serve out the remainder of this year before starting his term.

Stephens County School Superintendent Bryan Dorsey said that the school system will immediately begin the process of getting the state to sign off on Wheeler and Smith for the two Board seats so that they can be sworn in to serve.

Dorsey said he is hopeful that both men could start serving on the Stephens County Board of Education at next month’s meeting.