Only one person beat last week’s deadline to qualify as a candidate for school board in Tallahatchie County, this despite the fact two seats are available in the general election, according to information from the circuit clerk’s office in Charleston.
Taranetta Q. Harris, 36, of 1205 Manning Dr., Oakland, has qualified to seek the Education District 8 post, a seat on the East Tallahatchie School District Board of Trustees presently held by Raymond Radcliff. Harris qualified on Aug. 30.
Radcliff, who presently serves as vice president of the Charleston school board, reportedly had planned to qualify for reelection but did not submit his paperwork by the qualifying deadline of 5 p.m. on Sept. 6.
No one signed up to seek the Education District 3 seat on the West Tallahatchie School District Board of Trustees, a post currently held by Edith Gipson. She had announced in January that she would not be seeking reelection.
Elizabeth Jonson, communications director for the Mississippi secretary of state’s office, said once Gipson’s term expires at the end of this year, the West Tallahatchie school board will have to follow “the appropriate vacancy statutes” for the position.
Jonson sent a copy of a statute from the Mississippi Code, 37-7-709, which stipulates that in cases of a school district board of trustees vacancy, all other members of the school board are to appoint someone from within the boundaries of the education district in which the vacancy exists, to serve until a special election for the seat is held in November 2024. Candidates would be able to sign up for the post during the qualifying period opening in August.
Members of the East and West Tallahatchie school districts' five-member boards of trustees serve staggered five-year terms, with one seat in each school district coming up for election every fall.
