For all the mumbling and grumbling and purported dissatisfaction with the directions sometime taken by the Fort Smith School District Board of Education, the 2017 election cycle drew very little in the way of “new blood” for the panel.
Two Fort Smith Public School District Board of Education seats were open for the fall. The At-Large Position Two post currently held by current board president Dr. Deanie Mehl, who has announced her intention not to seek re-election, and the Zone III, Position Seven, currently held by Jeannie Cole.
Cole will maintain her spot on the board as she is running unopposed. The spot being vacated by Dr. Mehl will go by default to Fort Smith attorney Greg Magness who was the only candidate to file for the other of the two empty seats.
Magness is an attorney with Hardin, Jesson, & Terry, PLC, focusing primarily on commercial law. A Southsde High School graduate who graduated the University of Arkansas in fayetteville before attending the University of Texas for his law degree.
According to online sources, Magness has served as a former board member for Western Arkansas Legal Services and is an elder and active member of the Covenant Presbyterian Church in Fort Smith. He and wife, Van Fakes Magness, have two children, both of whom attend Fort Smith Public Schools.
All seats on the board are three-year terms.
Also on the ballot will be the renewal of the school tax rate (state and local) of 36.5 mills. This represents the same rate presently collected on the dollar of the assessed value of taxable property located in the Fort Smith school district.
