Now that the shock is beginning to wear-off on the surprising news that Hamilton Southeastern School Board President Mike Bottorff has resigned his board seat, the question many are asking is – what comes next?

Under state law, the remaining board members will decide who replaces Mr. Bottorff on the board.  But how they go about doing that is entirely up to the board.

I contacted all six school board members late Thursday night, asking where the board should go from here.  As of mid-afternoon the next day (Friday) I have received two responses.  One is still processing what all this means.  The other is busy dealing with personal family end-of-school-year issues.  Neither would comment at this time.

So, why have the other four school board members not responded to my messages?  I do not take that personally.  I don’t believe these remaining board members yet know what will happen next.  I suspect they were taken a bit off guard by Mike Bottorff’s decision to resign from the board.

The board has a wide range of options before it.  I will quickly run through what the board did when there was an opening on the board in late 2013, the last time this happened.

Darren Sink, who oddly enough sat in the same at-large Fall Creek Township seat as Mike Bottorff, notified the board of his resignation in November of 2013.  The board decided to allow anyone living in Fall Creek Township and meeting minimum qualifications to apply for the open board seat.  There were a lot of applicants.

The board reviewed all the applications and chose a set of finalists.  Board members interviewed each candidate in open meetings anyone could attend (I attended them all).

In January of 2014, Howard Stevenson was sworn-in as a new HSE School Board member.  Mr. Stevenson then ran for the at-large Fall Creek Township school board seat in 2016.  The rules governing at-large elections for HSE School Board say the candidate must live within the township she/he may be representing, but the entire school district votes on each township race.

In that 2016 Fall Creek Township at-large election, Mike Bottorff had 14,797 votes, and Howard Stevenson tallied 14,756 votes.  Bottorff won that election by about one-tenth of one percent (0.1%) of the votes cast.  Candidate J. Kent Everett came in a distant third.

I’m already seeing plenty of social media posts supporting this or that candidate to apply for the vacant board seat.  Just keep in mind the board decides how and when to fill that seat.  They could follow the precedent of 2013-2014 or do something entirely different.

At this point, board members have not provided any indication how they plan to proceed.

Then, there is the issue of how to name a new board president.  Sylvia Shepler, as board vice president, will preside over the next regular board meeting scheduled for June 12th (that presumes the board chooses not to call a special meeting, with the proper advance notice under the law).   The board then may choose to vote on a new board president to fill-out Mr. Bottorff’s term for the remainder of this calendar year.

But even that is not certain.  The board could just allow Mrs. Shepler to assume the role of acting board president the remainder of the year.  Once again, this is all up to the board.

Some have asked why Mike Bottorff has chosen to resign from the board so suddenly?  My answer is this.  Unless given a compelling reason otherwise, I take Mike at his word that he is leaving the board for the reasons he provided in the letter to his fellow board members.

“I find I cannot continue that (school board) service and also keep important commitments to my family,” Bottorff wrote in the letter. “I have to set priorities and, in that regard, my obligations to family must come first.”

We did get a hint of this in Board President Bottorff’s statement read aloud at the May 8th school board meeting when the HSE District nondiscrimination policy was approved.  He cited examples of threats made to school board members and their families as the nondiscrimination policy was debated in the local community.

I have always admired anyone willing to run for public office.  The candidate and family face many personal hardships just to run a sound campaign.  Then, once elected, the elected official must be prepared for the harsh criticism that comes when a controversial issue is debated.

No matter how you may feel about Mike Bottorff’s votes on the school board, I admire his willingness to serve and I wish he and his family nothing but the best in the future.

Now, we wait for word from the school board on how his successor will be chosen.  I will be reporting that here at LarryInFishers.com.