SALEM — MSAD #58 Superintendent Quenten Clark said the next school board meeting should be difficult from the first minute of the meeting to the last. Clark said he is seeking additional legal advice to start the meeting on July 29.

As the record stands, Chairman Alan Morse is expected to open the meeting. At the last school board meeting, Morse was elected as chairman over long-term chairman Mike Pond by a 5-4 vote using written ballots.

Clark said that Pond challenged the vote because of “improper procedure.” Pond also said that all business conducted that night was also invalid because it was run under an illegal chairman. The question for the board and Clark will be interpretations of ballot voting.

At the July 15 meeting two nominations were cast for Pond and Morse. Before a vote was called looking for a show of hands, Morse asked for a written ballot as a matter of policy.

Clark said he discouraged this practice, but Morse explained that this was part of the board’s own adopted policy.

School Board policy BDA adopted on Dec. 8, 2005 and mandated by law states: “If more than one candidate is nominated, the election shall be by ballot.”Nominations shall be made from the floor. For election to office, a nominee must receive a majority vote of the entire Board membership. Should no nominee receive this vote, the election shall be declared null and void and nominations reopened.”

Clark received legal advice based on Pond’s claim that the vote was actually a secret ballot. As of Sunday night the legal advice received was “at best vague,” Clark explained.

The attorneys did not say the vote was illegal and explained that many school boards use secret ballots to elect officers. Lawyers always encourage as much open voting as possible due to pressure from the media, Clark explained. One suggestion offered was that a written ballot could include the voting members’ names. Clark admitted that this sounds unusual and against the principal of a written ballot. He thinks the lawyers want as much transparency as possibly due to sunshine laws.

On July 15 Morse was insistent on a written ballot which led to a vote to decide to use the ballot procedure or not. All but Pond voted in favor of the ballot vote.

“As you know,” Morse explained, “we had two possible courses of action at that meeting: follow our policy or not. If we had not followed our established, written policy, our procedure could certainly have been questioned. In order to move forward, we chose to follow a policy that is shared by other boards around the state and has apparently never been challenged, until now,” Morse said.

Clark said he hoped the board didn’t get too caught up on who is chairman because they have some big issues to tackle that night. He explained that he will continue to seek legal advice early this week to handle the procedural challenge from Pond.

“I don’t know what they’re going to do,” Clark said. “I’m sure to be sitting there between the two of them, wondering what to do.”

“I am hoping to get clarity from the attorneys to deal with this difficult issue and move on,” he explained.