“Rules must be obeyed.” ± Agnetha Faltskog of ABBA, in “The Winner Takes It All”
ACHTUNG: This is not a “fair and balanced” article. It is an editorial by the editor.
In all my more than 50 years as a community journalist, I cannot recall any instance in which someone elected to office has had their seat declared vacant so quickly after the election.
Yet here we are.
The highly unusual story about former State Rep. Steven Johnson unraveled earlier this week when the Hopkins Board of Education voted to render empty the seat Johnson won on the school board in the Nov. 5 general election.
Hopkins Public Schools now is publishing a legal notice inviting applicants to make notice about their interest in the position. The deadline for applying is Jan. 8 and the current board will review candidates and make a selection later next month.
So essentially, this development transforms an elected office into an appointed one.
Johnson apparently failed to officially accept the position to which he was elected in the time frame specified by state law. I admit I didn’t even know this requirement existed. Perhaps Johnson didn’t know either.
Regardless, Johnson served in the State Legislature for six years and probably should have been aware of the legal requirements.
So is it possible, as someone has suggested, that he doesn’t want to be a member of the Hopkins school board? Or was it just an oversight?
Some may contend that Johnson is unfairly being denied a seat to which he was duly elected because of a cumbersome bureaucratic stipulation. Johnson became somewhat notorious for not playing by the rules while a state legislator who refused to wear a mask during the Covid pandemic.
Johnson is a graduate of South Christian High School and Hillsdale College, neither of which are public school systems. And he publicly has contended that public schools are “grooming” students.
It should be interesting to see if Johnson is one of the applicants for the now declared vacant seat, and if he is, what school board members will do in making its selection of a colleague.
Hopkins deserves Steve. In August they had a HS art opening, and Superintendent VanBonn wrote to me that my “views are not welcome at Hopkins,” without further elaboration. Hopkins and Steve are meant for each other.
After I read the story on Town Broadcast, I reached out to Steve Johnson on the Facebook, and he publicly posted this on December 19:
“Hey everyone,
I wanted to provide an update on the school board seat that we won this past November.
After the election, I had a phone call with the Hopkins Superintendent who informed me that there was some paperwork that I would have to sign as well as take the oath of office. I asked what the deadline on that was and he informed me “anytime before January 1st”.
While that was mostly accurate, there is one form, called an acceptance of office form, that must be signed within 10 days. (Note: I do not believe this was intentional but an honest mistake on the part of the superintendent).
Because this form was not signed within the 10 days, the Board was required to vacate the seat and appoint a replacement.
While I apologize for the inconvenience that this clerical error has caused, the Board has a very easy decision to respect the will of the voters and appoint myself to the seat that we won.
Regardless of who you voted for, I hope we all can agree that the honorable thing for the Board members to do, is to respect the outcome of the election. To do otherwise would be an affront to the voters and cause the Board to lose all credibility.
Once again, I want to thank the voters of the Hopkins School District for placing their trust in me.”
Now you know the rest of the story.