Board cannot elect a chair in organizational meeting; moves forward with current lineup

The Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools Board of Education opened its annual organizational meeting and could not elect a chair after several rounds of nominations and show-of-hands votes. Board member Brown Gaither nominated Alex Bohannon and another member nominated Richard Watts; repeated counts produced 4 votes for Bohannon and 2 for Watts, short of the majority required to elect a chair.

Board members proceeded with additional nomination rounds but again failed to yield a majority. At one point a board member criticized colleagues for abstaining, saying some had been told by their party not to vote and that the practice was “a problem.” With no majority reached, the chair said the board would move forward with the current lineup and “address this at our next meeting.”

The stalemate occurred during the opening organizational procedure, after the Pledge of Allegiance and invocation. No formal motion to postpone or to elect by another method was recorded. The board then continued with special recognitions and the superintendent’s update.

The next procedural step is for the board to reconvene and either reopen nominations or adopt an alternative election procedure; the chair indicated that the matter will be returned to the agenda at a subsequent meeting.