A Hopkinsville banker has been selected to fill the District 4 vacancy on the Christian County Board of Education.
Rebecca Pepper was the unanimous choice of the school board during a special meeting Wednesday afternoon. The four members currently serving on the board — chairman Tom Bell, Jeff Moore, Tiffany Mumford Brame and Lindsey Clark — met in closed session for about 80 minutes and emerged to vote on Pepper’s appointment without comment or further discussion.
Pepper will fill the vacancy created by Mike Walker’s early resignation. She will serve until a special election is conducted in November.
According to her LinkedIn profile, Pepper is a branch manager for U.S. Bank, where she has worked since 2010. She graduated from Christian County High School in 2005 and earned an associate’s degree from Hopkinsville Community College in 2007.
9 applications submitted
Pepper was one of nine applicants for the position. The other candidates were Caleb Ballard, Desma Blount, Amy Falco, Gary Haile, Linda Keller, Delinda Norrid, Thomas Parker and Michael Thompson.
The applicants were asked to submit an application form with information about educational and employment history and to respond to three questions concerning their interest in serving on the school board.
Open records request pending
The district released the names of the nine applicants on Monday but did not provide any biographical information about them. Hoptown Chronicle filed an open records request with the district on Monday for copies of the nine applications.
Because the request is pending, only school board members and district officials had access to the biographical information and the applicants’ responses to questions before the school board voted on an appointment.
The Kentucky Open Records Act allows a public agency to take up to five business days to respond to a records request. Karen Edwards, secretary to the superintendent, said in an email to Hoptown Chronicle, “Due to the holidays, we are closed on Friday and Monday, therefore, that pushes your response out to December 28th. I hope to have your request before then, however, legally I wanted to ensure you knew we had until December 28th.”
Jennifer P. Brown is co-founder, publisher and editor of Hoptown Chronicle. You can reach her at editor@hoptownchronicle.org. Brown was a reporter and editor at the Kentucky New Era, where she worked for 30 years. She is a co-chair of the national advisory board to the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues, governing board past president for the Kentucky Historical Society, and co-founder of the Kentucky Open Government Coalition. She serves on the Hopkinsville History Foundation's board.
