Highlands to hold virtual meeting to fill school board vacancy

Highlands School Board will hold a special virtual meeting next week to fill a vacancy on the board, the district said in a legal notice Thursday.

The board was previously scheduled to meet in person at 6 p.m. Tuesday in the library at Highlands High School to conduct interviews and vote to fill the vacancy.

The time and date of the meeting have not changed. The public will be able to participate in the virtual meeting online and by telephone, the notice said.

The meeting will be streamed live online through Zoom, an online video conferencing service. A link to the video will be available through the agenda on the district’s website.

The telephone conference for the meeting will be accessible at 724-226-2400, ext. 4522.

A seat on the nine-member board became vacant when Misty Chybrzynski, the former board president, resigned in March. She held one of three seats in the district’s Region 2, which includes Brackenridge and the Natrona area of Harrison.

Applications for the seat were due by March 23. District officials have not responded to requests for information about who or how many people applied. State law requires the school board to conduct interviews in public.

In a second legal notice, the district said that if the school board’s regular agenda or voting meetings need to be held virtually, the Zoom video link will be available through the online meeting agenda and access will also be available through the same telephone number.

The next agenda meeting is scheduled for April 13 and the next voting meeting is scheduled for April 20.

School board meetings are required to be held in public. Meeting by teleconference, webinar or other electronic method allowing for two-way communication is allowed, according to an advisory issued by the state’s Office of Open Records. The advisory said governing bodies should record virtual meetings and make the recordings available to the public, preferably online.