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Lansing school board splits over new members

By Caroline Trowbridge - | Dec 8, 1999

It took eight votes Monday night, but finally the Lansing school board agreed to disagree.

The school board was scheduled to appoint new members to the board to fill two vacancies created when Helen Wilber resigned Sept. 20 and Tony Rush resigned Nov. 1.

But no such luck.

The five remaining board members couldn’t agree on any nominees.

“They didn’t have enough votes to pass any of them,” said Paula Mengel, board clerk. “Everything was three to two, two to three, some combination of that.”

A majority of a full board is needed to pass a motion. So four members would have been required to approve a new member.

After six failed votes on potential replacements and two failed votes to table consideration of replacements, the board agreed on a 4-1 vote to conduct a special meeting on Dec. 20 to revisit the matter.

Two weeks ago, the board accepted the resignation of Lansing school Superintendent Michael J. Wilson. The resignation came after Wilson was suspended in October based on accusations that he had sent salacious e-mail messages from his office computer during the workday.

Jan Jorgensen, principal at Lansing Intermediate School, continues as temporary acting superintendent. Plans call for a new superintendent to be in place by July 1.