Are there voters in the Hollow Rock-Bruceton Special School District (HR-BSSD) who don’t have any representation on the school board?
That’s a question the Carroll County Election Commission discussed at their meeting on Thursday, January 8.
Administrator of Elections, Peg Hamlett, explained that HR-BSSD school board member Nick Maness won the 18th Civil District seat at the 2024 election. During the election, he lived within that district.
The 18th civil district covers the rural Spanish Grove area south of Bruceton.
Shortly after the election, Maness moved out of District 18 and into Bruceton’s city limits, which Hamlett said should have triggered a vacancy.
When the school board submitted their 2026 call for election in October, 2025, an unexpired term for District 18 was not included.
“This wasn’t alarming because there had not been a vacancy called,” she said, not knowing Maness moved.
It came to her attention in November, 2025, after HR-BSSD board member Jim Holder contacted her requesting the number of registered voters in the 18th Civil District.
“He was concerned that there may not be enough voters in the district to meet the 25-signature requirement to qualify a candidate by petition,” she said.
Election records show that there are 159 qualified voters in the district, which Hamlett said has historically been sufficient.
That was when she learned Maness moved out of District 18.
“[The school district] didn’t notify us of this move or call a vacancy,” Hamlett explained. “and it had been nearly a year at that point.”
“We should let these voters know that their representation now lives in Bruceton city limits, with two other representatives that were voted to represent inside Bruceton city limits,” she added. “It now looks like Bruceton has three board members, and the 18th District has zero.”
Board Chairman’s Explanation
Brad Hurley, Chairman of HR-BSSD’s Board of Education, said in a phone interview that there is no legal requirement to announce a vacancy in this situation.
“A “vacancy” is defined in the charter as when someone moves out of the Hollow Rock-Bruceton Special School District,” Hurley said, “not the area they represent.”
Since Maness moved to Bruceton, he still resides within the school district overall.
Hurley said a representative from the Tennessee School Boards Association (TSBA) reviewed the district’s charter and agreed that no vacancy declaration was required.
He added that while Maness may legally continue to serve on the board through the remainder of his elected term, he would not be eligible to run for the District 18 seat in the 2028 election.
Election Administrator Raises Ethical Concerns
“The question before the Election Commission is not whether the process is lawful, but whether voters in the 18th Civil District should be informed that their elected representative no longer resides in their district and that the seat will not appear on the ballot again until 2028,” Hamlett said.
She emphasized that the Election Commission does not have authority to police vacancies or compel a governing body to place a seat on the ballot.
In HR-BSSD’s charter found on the County Technical Advisory Services (CTAS) website, an unnumbered section defines “vacancy” in the way Hurley described.
The charter goes on to say, “…in the election of the members of [the Board] …not more than one member…shall reside within the corporate limits of Hollow Rock and not more than two members…shall reside within the corporate limits of Bruceton, the Member-at-Large of the Sixteenth (16th) Civil District shall not reside within either of the Corporate limits and the other remaining members, one each from the 15th, 17th, and 18th Civil Districts, shall reside within the Civil District that they represent.”
Hamlett argued that the Charter is not clear when it comes to this situation.
“The ambiguity of the Private Acts leaves the 18th Civil District without representation,” she said. “If a board member (and the voters for that board member) can only be from a specific civil district, then after elected, the member moves from that civil district but still within the special school district, and is allowed to continue serving on the school board, then what’s the point of having civil districts at all?”
Hamlett said that if any voters from the 18th Civil District have questions regarding this matter, they are welcome to contact her at the Election Commission office at (731) 986-1968.
