By LYNETTE SOWELL
Cove Leader-Press
History was made when Samantha Wilson was sworn in during a Dec. 8 workshop and special meeting of the Copperas Cove Independent School District board of trustees.
Wilson is a 2012 graduate of Copperas Cove ISD and the mother of four current CCISD students. She’s the first board member who is a 2000s graduate of CCHS. Since 2017, the alum has served as the church administrator at Refuge Ministries, where she oversees daily operations. She also on the Salvation Army Board, volunteers at her children’s schools, and serves on sports booster clubs.
Wilson was sworn into Place 3, when longtime trustee Mike Wilburn chose not to run again to spend more time with his grandson. Wilson and another resident, Leah Elmore, both ran for the office in the November election. Wilburn had served on the board for 18 years and had been part of the district for 66 years, as a student, teacher, administrator, and as a board member.
After she took her oath of office from Justice of the Peace Bill Price, she took her seat at the table with the other trustees and district superintendent. Heather Copeland also was sworn in for her position after being reelected.
Along with the swearing in, the board also selected its officers on Dec. 8, for the positions of president, vice president, and treasurer.
Prior to the nominations, Trustee Jeff Gorres asked if the agenda item meets the public notice announcement requirements because it stated “reorganization” of the board and didn’t specifically state officers. He said he thought it would be more appropriate to do that at the regular board meeting on Dec. 15.
“Because our agenda says reorganization and with the SOP and BDA local, it says election of board officers. So I’m concerned with, did we meet the public notice requirement?”
Joan Manning, the current board president, said that what would reorganization mean, other than the election of officers?
“I questioned that, because I know it’s a workshop, and we don’t typically vote in workshops, so we did make it a special meeting, which includes a workshop, but a special meeting could be conveyed as the swearing in of the officers,” Manning explained.
Trustee Sherry Hoffpauir went on to nominate Manning for the position of board president, which was seconded by Heather Copeland.
Trustee John Gallen moved to nominate Jeff Gorres for board president, which was seconded by Trustee Timothy Traeger.
Manning said the board would consider the first nomination and go from there.
The vote ended up 4-3 to elect Manning as board president, with Manning, newly sworn-in trustee Samantha Wilson, Heather Copeland, and Sherry Hoffpauir voting in favor of Maning. Gallen, Gorres and Traeger all cast “nay” votes.
Jeff Gorres then nominated John Gallen for vice president of the board, which was seconded by Timothy Traeger, and there were no other nominations. His nomination passed unanimously.
Next came the position of secretary, which Jeff Gorres began with questioning the board’s standard operating procedure, or SOP, which states that board members must have completed two years on the board prior to being elected to an officer position.
“I know that our SOP says two years, but our SOP has been in flux this entire year, in my opinion. And with that being said, our local policies say two years, our SOP says two years, but our trustees are the ones to revise it,” Gorres said.
Jeff Gorres nominated Timothy Traeger as secretary, although Traeger has only completed one full year on the board.
Gallen called for suspension of the rules where the nominations were concerned.
“A point of point of order here, we can suspend the rules as far as that’s concerned. As far as I know, it says two years in there, because I went through this again, and if the election had gone a different way, there would have only been two of us, maybe, that are eligible for positions,” Gallen said.
“All you have to have legally is a president and a secretary. So, two (eligible trustees) would have been enough,” Manning responded.
“Again, it doesn’t say in our legal or local policy that two years is a requirement, not BDA,” Gorres countered.
“I’m sorry, but I don’t agree with you doing that. I like Tim, but if y’all want to go ahead and if there’s a second to that nomination, we can go ahead and vote. That’s fine,” Manning said.
Gallen seconded nominating Timothy Traeger for secretary, and then the board took a vote, which was against Traeger 3-4. Hoffpauir, Manning, Wilson, and Copeland voted said no to Traeger, with Gorres, Gallen, and Traeger voting yes.
“I always I like to say when I do a no vote, this was because it’s against our operating procedures. I don’t think that’s right to do that and pull that at the last second like that. You could have told us maybe when this came out. So, I very much disagree with what just happened,” Manning said.
Then, Sherry Hoffpauir nominated Heather Copeland as secretary, which was seconded by Samantha Wilson. Copeland was elected secretary, 4 votes to 3.
At the conclusion, Manning, a more than 30-year veteran of the school board, addressed the election of officers.
“Thank you, everyone, for the reorganization of the Board of Trustees,” Manning said. “I’m sorry to say that was very uncomfortable for me. I hope that we can get past it, work as a group, as a team. I’ve never been through a reorganization like that, and I am sorry that it happened that way your first meeting.”
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