PENDER COUNTY — The Pender County Board of Education could be taking up its district 2 vacancy at its Nov. 9 meeting, according to the board chair.
Don Hall told Port City Daily Thursday Jason Jordan is scheduled to be sworn in on Nov. 9. Jordan, a Republican, won the primary in February against Republicans candidate Kim McGahey. He is the only candidate on the Nov. 3 ballot for the board of education, meaning he is the presumptive winner without a Democratic challenger.
Election winners are normally sworn in during December’s education board meeting; however, the accelerated timeline of putting Jordan in on Nov. 9 is due to the vacancy left when former board member, Beth Burns, exited to fill the district 1 open seat for the Pender County Board of Commissioners.
Normally, the Pender County GOP would make the appointment since Burns, a Republican, stepped back for another position. However, the party confirmed it did not plan on making a recommendation before the Nov. 9 meeting, due to the short timeline between the appointment period and the election.
“With only one scheduled BOE meeting from Mrs. Burns’ resignation [on Oct. 5] and Election Day, Mr. Hall and I agreed that permitting the BOE fill this vacancy after the 30-day timeline was the best path forward,” GOP Chair Joshua Smith said.
Smith added the Pender County Republican Party remained focused on early voting and Election Day.
“They have a lot of stuff going on themselves,” Hall said.
North Carolina General Statute 115C‑37.1 states when filling a board of education vacancy, if the departing member was elected to the board as a nominee of a political party, then that party’s executive committee has 30 days from when the vacancy originally occurred to recommend a replacement. However, if the recommendation is not given within the 30-day window, Pender County Schools policy allows the remaining members of the school board to have appointment authority.
Hall said the board already had a Nov. 9 meeting scheduled, so adding Jordan’s appointment to the agenda seemed natural. The official meeting agenda has not been posted.
Hall believes the vote to appoint Jordan to the board will be “no problem.”
“He would have gotten the seat anyway in December, and it just makes sense to go ahead and put him in a month early,” Hall said.
Jordan has been consistently attending board of education meetings, according to Hall, so there is an expectation the candidate is familiar with what the board is working on.
“Not to mention his district is unrepresented right now, so it’ll get that taken care of as well,” Hall said.
Port City Daily reached out to Jordan for comment but did not hear back by press.
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