Pender Co. School Board to vote on new member
PENDER COUNTY — The Pender County Board of Education will hold a special meeting Friday to select a new member.
According to a news release, the board will meet Friday at 4 p.m. to vote on appointing Kenneth Keith to fill the District 4 seat left empty when longtime school board member Katherine Herring died July 5.
The release says Keith will fill the seat until a new representative for District 4 is elected in November. Herring, who was first elected in 1990, had announced in January she would not seek reelection.
Democrat June Robbins and Republican Ken Smith are on the ballot for District 4 in November.
It was not immediately clear how Keith became the lone name for the board to consider at Friday’s meeting.
According to the school district’s news release, Keith is a long-time Pender County resident. He began his career as a family court counselor in the Fifth Judicial District, where he served for 16 years before starting the first alternative program in Pender County Schools in 1989. He later served as an assistant principal at Pender High and Topsail High.
“Ms. Katherine Herring was on the board a long time; I can’t say that I can replace her,” Keith said in the release. “I will give my best effort to fill out the term to the best of my ability putting children first.”
