Bireley keeps board seat

Hughes defeats Laird for District 3 seat

By Jonathan Starkey
Staff Reporter

Nearly 2,400 people voted in the election for the District 4 seat on the Indian River School Board, overshadowing turnout for the other local election and any other district election in history.

Incumbent Charles Bireley defeated challenger Jackie Wilson by a vote of 1337-1033 in what is believed to be a record turnout for an Indian River school board election.

“I’m tickled to death,” said Bireley, a 29-year school board veteran, of the turnout and the final result. “I’m very pleased and I’m looking forward to three more years.”

In the election for the District 3 school board seat — which carries a one-year term — recent appointee Randall Hughes defeated challenger Will Laird by a vote of 496-93. Laird was not available for comment before press time.

“I’m very happy to have won,” Hughes said, who was appointed to his seat in January after Greg Hastings stepped down. “I think the whole process went very well. I’m just very humbled.”

Hughes added about the District 4 election; “That’s democracy at its finest. That’s fantastic. They were two very good candidates.”

Bireley said that the prayer suit facing the district and the board was the major issue surrounding this year’s election, and that it probably swung this year’s vote.

Early in 2005, the Dobriches, a Jewish family, along with another unidentified family filed suit against the district, claiming multiple First Amendment violations. She said that Christian prayer in school and at academic and athletic events had “pervaded the life” of district teachers and students.

Defended by an American Civil Liberties Union attorney, the plaintiffs late last year offered a settlement that included a six-figure money amount and several stipulations. The board, of which Bireley was president, unanimously denied that settlement offer in late February. The board has since been sued by its insurance company, on the grounds that it should have accepted the settlement.

“That’s the issue,” Bireley said of the District 4 campaign. “They approved of what we did back on Feb. 28. It became a campaign issue.”

Wilson agreed, but thought the public might have been misled.

“The election came down to the lawsuit,” she said. “They assumed that Charles Bireley was for the lawsuit and Jackie Wilson was against it. That’s unfortunate. I’m not against prayer in school, as long as we do what the Supreme Court says.”

Wilson, a life-long educator who had 28 years of experience in the Indian River School District as a teacher and administrator before leaving for the state and college levels, was unable to give a direct answer about the prayer suit when asked by the Coastal Point, saying she didn’t have enough information due to the closed nature of the suit and settlement terms.

Bireley didn’t answer the question from the Coastal Point, either, citing a court-ordered silence. Wilson noted that she did answer questions on the subject when appearing before crowds and individuals, but she didn’t make it part of her extensive campaign, which might have hurt her at the polls.

Wilson said she will not run in another school board election but will stay involved with the district.

“They made their choice,” Wilson said. “They chose Mr. Bireley. (But) I will follow what is going on and I will stay involved because 1,000 people expect me to.”