Ferguson-Florissant Board of Education Elects New Officers

Less than one month after swearing in a new board and electing new officers, the once again has new board officers.

During the Wednesday night meeting, the board elected new officers at the beginning of the meeting to account for its vacancy. John Knowles resigned from the board and his presidency position on Tuesday.

Knowles stepped down following a controversy in which four of the board members attended the National School Boards Association conference in San Francisco in April and racked up more than $12,800 in charges from hotel rooms, dinners, plane tickets and laundry service.

The newly elected board officers are:

• Leslie Hogshead, president
• Paul Schroeder, vice president
• Charles Henson, secretary
• Robert Chabot, assistant secretary

Following the elections, new president Leslie Hogshead announced what would happen with the board vacancy.

The board will put out advertisements for applications, which will include qualifications and qualities for a board member.

From there, applications and resumes will be accepted and continue into an interview process, and the process will be open session.

Hogshead said that the board considered past procedures of a board member resigning, which is how they arrived at an application process for the board vacancy.

Regarding her board colleague who resigned, she said that his energy would be missed.

“He had a different perspective from all of us,” Hogshead said. “He brought his energy to the table each meeting.”

Superintendent said that there’s no timeline for the hiring process planned at the moment. He said he plans to meet with his cabinet on Thursday morning and send the timeline to the board, and he hopes to have the ad posted by the end of the week.