Justin Guido

The fourth person to be nominated to fill a vacant school board seat was approved by the South Butler County School Board.

The board nominated candidates to fill the seat of Dale Fennell, who resigned in May for health reasons.

The term expires at the end of 2023.

On Wednesday night, board member Anthony Infante kicked off the process of appointing a board member to fill the seat by nominating Lindsay DeFelice.

No other board members moved to approve the nomination, so a vote was not taken.

Next, board member Jill McDonald nominated Cynthia Pulkowski, but, again, no motion to approve the nomination was forthcoming from the seven other board members.

Board member Rebecca Boyd then nominated Michael Archer and received a motion and second to move forward with a vote on that candidate.

“I can’t say enough nice things about him, and I think he brings a lot to the table that we don’t have access to any other way to know what the teachers think,” Boyd said of Archer, whose wife is a South Butler teacher.

The vote on approving Archer ended in a 4-4 tie, with Boyd, Debra Miller, Patricia Larimer and David McRandal voting in favor.

Voting no were Infante, McDonald, Donna Eakin and William Gebhart.

Gebhart then nominated Justin Kovach.

When Gebhart received a motion and second, he stated that Kovach loves students, and his focus is on students and his love for his young family.

Gebhart did not mention what students Kovach teaches, and he is not listed online as a teacher in the South Butler County School District.

“He will bring a great asset with his engineering skills as we move forward with the building project,” Gebhart said.

Six board members voted in favor of Kovach, with Boyd and Miller voting no.

Kovach will be installed as a school board member in an upcoming meeting.