With Tuesday’s school board election for Guthrie Public Schools, there were still questions left on election day to determine if a candidate would be able to serve two positions at once. That answer came today.
Jennifer Bennett-Johnson, 44, and Jonathan “JW” Williams, 51, are running for the Ward 4 seat. The ward became open when current board member Orville Cornelius did not file for re-election.
On Monday, it was not certain if Williams would be able to serve as a School Resource Officer while being a school board member, if elected.
Related story: Confusion surrounding school board election on Tuesday
City Officials worked with their legal staff on the matter and ruled on Tuesday that an elected official could not serve as a SRO.
A statement from the city states, “Legal advisement for the City of Guthrie is to not allow an elected member of the GPS School Board to carry out the duties of the School Resource Officer Agreement between the City of Guthrie and Guthrie Public Schools.”
Last July, the city and school district agreed to a contract that will pay for two SRO’s. The contract states the school district would pay the city $32,000 for each SRO for the nine months school is in session. With that, the city would then assign the SRO’s to the schools and not the school district themselves.
The school district will fund the two new SRO positions at a total cost to the city in the amount of $63,854.50 which includes a portion of the salary, uniform, training, insurance, pension, equipment and fuel.
Williams has not campaign for the seat for several weeks believing he was not eligible, but a Monday article on Guthrie News Page stirred up questions about the issue at hand.
If Williams were to be elected he would then have two options: resign from the school board and allow the Board of Education to appoint someone to that seat, or he could allow the city to assign the SRO position to another officer and remain on the school board.
In an interview with The Oklahoman, in January, Bennett-Johnson said, “I think the people in the district would much rather vote for a board member than have one appointed.”
Polls are open until 7 p.m.
I was told this is not accurate when I asked about it today…said they talked to the lawyers & it would be ok. Interesting….wonder what is fact?
Elise Friese (405)-306-5903
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Hard to believe that someone could serve on an oversight committee (aka School Board) that was also employed by the entity they are tasked to oversee. Seems like a huge conflict of interest to me but when you get lawyers involved, who knows.
So, if the city is the one who is employing the SRO, and JW is already a city employee, does that mean that NO city employees may be on the school board? Not making much sense…
He works for the City but the Public Schools is who is paying for his services, therein lies the conflict. If a City employee doesn’t work for GPSD, then there is no conflict.