[7/30/04]Two members of the Vicksburg Warren School District Board of Trustees resigned Thursday night, leaving the remaining three with the duty of appointing replacements.

District 1 Trustee Chad Barrett, who filed suit against the board in December, and District 5 Trustee Kay Aasand, who announced in May that she was moving with her family to Jackson, resigned at the board’s regular meeting.

Aasand resigned in open session. Barrett gave his resignation in executive session.

Trustees are elected from supervisor districts and receive only token pay. Their six-year terms are staggered by two-year intervals, but the terms of both Barrett and Aasand are expiring in December.

Barrett, a pharmacist, declined comment in detail, but said, “I appreciate the support of my constituents, and I tried to represent them to the best of my ability.”

Barrett filed suit on behalf of his son, Tyler Barrett, then a Warren Central High School student, after a discipline case at the school. The court file was ordered sealed.

Aasand, an educator, had served a stint as board president.

“Both of the board members who resigned spent almost six years working for the students of Warren County, and it is a thankless position,” Superintendent James Price said. “They were both dedicated and spent many long hours serving as education leaders for the school district.”

Public school board members are paid less than $2,400 annually, meet monthly and are required to attend training sessions and seminars.

“In regard to some of the issues surrounding Mr. Barrett, I feel that he has consistently voiced and voted what he truly believed to be in the best interest of the parties involved,” Price said.

Aasand’s resignation was expected as her husband, Kenneth Aasand, accepted a job in May with the Mississippi Air National Guard in Jackson.

The family will move a week from today the day after classes begin for students here and after selling their house.

Aasand’s son, 11-year-old Dallas Aasand, said he won’t encourage his mother to run for the school board in Rankin County where he and his brother, Kent, will attend Northwest Rankin Middle School this year.

“It will be better because she won’t have to go to all these meetings and seminars,” said Dallas, who accompanies his mother to board meetings at times.

Aasand said she has no plans to run for office there, but feels she made a difference during her tenure.

She noted the construction of the newly built board room and the pending return to a community-based elementaries among her accomplishments.

The remaining members of the school board, Jan Daigre, Betty Tolliver and Zelmarine Murphy, must appoint two replacements within 30 days, according to board policy.

Those chosen must be registered voters in the districts they will represent and may or may not be candidates for full terms that start Jan. 1. No candidates have announced for the slots. Voters make their choices Nov. 2, the day of the presidential election.

The trustees’ next regular meeting is scheduled for 5:30 p.m. Aug. 26 at the district’s central offices on Mission 66.