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The Clark County Public Schools Board of Education elected a new board chair and is a step closer to filling one of the body’s two vacancies.

District 1 representative Bill Taulbee was unanimously elected as the board’s new chair during an organizational meeting on Tuesday evening.

District 5 representative and the board’s longest-serving member Ashely Ritchie was elected to serve as vice-chair.

Superintendent Dustin Howard was elected as the board’s secretary, and district finance director Aleisha Ellis was selected as its treasurer.

Also, during the organizational portion of the meeting, the board set its monthly meetings for every fourth Tuesday at 6:30 p.m. The board voted to table committee appointments until it is back to a full five members, but the motion gave Howard the power to solicit volunteers as needed.

District 3 search continues

The board seat from District 3 has been vacant since Nov. 22, when the board accepted the resignation of former board chair Megan Hendricks

Hendricks resigned her seat due to a pending move out of the district.

The board went into closed session toward the end of Tuesday’s meeting to discuss applicants.

After the meeting moved back into open session, Taulbee announced that four applicants had applied for the seat and that the board would conduct interviews with them later in the week.

The pending appointment will be the board’s second in the last six months.

Dora Hall was selected to fill the seat vacated by former District 2 representative Brenda Considine in October.

The board still has to fill the seat from District 4 that was vacated by Sherry Richardson last November.

Though it initially accepted Richardson’s resignation last year, the board voted to accept it again Tuesday due to the seat’s new term beginning. Richardson resigned after being re-elected to the seat in November, and as a result, no one was sworn in for it.

Board attorney bids

Last fall, the board solicited bids for legal services and announced Tuesday that it had received two bids.

The bids were from the board’s current counselor White, Peck, and Carrington of Mount Sterling and Winchester firm Grant, Rose, and Pumphrey.

Each firm’s bid would have the school district pay $200 an hour for their services.

After discussion, the board decided to take no action since there would be no cost savings, so White, Peck and Carrington will continue to represent it in all legal matters.