Diboll ISD Board of Trustees gets Havard at polls

Kent Havard will join returning incumbents Trey Wilkerson and Chuck Mann on the Diboll schools board of trustees after Saturday's election.

Havard, Diboll's police chief, was the high vote-getter in the election, drawing 387 votes. Mann recorded 294 and Wilkerson 269. The election was to elect the three highest vote getters in the five-man field of candidates. Jimmy Mettlen drew 130 votes and Chuck Hurley received 226.

Incumbent Sandy Hendrick did not seek another term. Wilkerson and Mann are president and vice president of the outgoing board. The election saw 530 voters turn out.

The election generally was uncontroversial, although the new board immediately faces a major challenge: finding a replacement for Superintendent Brent Hawkins, who has resigned effective at the end of the school year to become superintendent in Woden in Nacogdoches County.

The board scheduled a meeting for noon Tuesday to canvass the election results and were scheduled to discuss in executive session the search for a new superintendent. Board members were scheduled to hire a superintendent search firm after the executive session.