The Greene County Commission is scheduled fill the County School Board vacancy created by the resignation of county school board member Debra Knight during its March 15 meeting, according to County Mayor Alan Broyles.

However, Broyles said, the person named by the commission on March 15 to fill the 4th School Board District vacancy will serve only until Aug. 31.

The appointee will need to stand for election in the August county general election to serve the two years left in Knight's unexpired term of office, Mayor Broyles said during a Thursday interview.

Knight resigned on Jan. 28. Her unexpired term does not end until Aug. 31, 2012.

Mayor Alan Broyles said that the Greene County Commission, in choosing a successor to Knight, will use a voting procedure similar to that used last year to fill a vacancy on the county commission created by the death of the late Alex Edens.

He said anyone interested in applying to fill the school board vacancy must submit a resume to the Greene County Mayor's office no later than 9 a.m. Feb. 23.

A copy of each application for the 4th School Board District seat will be forwarded to the Greene County Election Commission, Broyles said.

He noted that the Election Commission staff will evaluate each application to ensure that it complies with federal and state election codes and that the applicants are qualified to hold the office.

Broyles said that during the Greene County Commission's March 15 meeting, each applicant will be given three minutes to address the commission before a vote is taken.

In order to be considered, he said, applicants must then be nominated by a county commissioner, with the nomination receiving a second from another commissioner.

Broyles added that in order to be chosen to fill the vacant 4th School Board District seat, an applicant must receive 11 votes.

If no one receives 11 votes during the first round of voting, Broyles said, those receiving the fewest votes will be dropped from consideration and voting will continue until one of the candidates receives 11 votes, which would be a majority of the 21 commissioners.

Knight, who had won election to the Greene County Board of Education in 2008, resigned unexpectedly from the county school board at the start of its Jan. 28 meeting.

The announcement came when Knight read aloud a letter addressed to David Johnson, the board's chairman.

"Today I learned from you, Mr. Chairman, [that] I am facing a pending lawsuit by a Greene County School employee alleging a verbal statement they believe I made about them that they perceived obviously in a negative way," Knight read from the letter.

"As per your request, effective immediately, I resign my current position as [a] Greene County School Board member so that the entire board will not be named in this lawsuit.

"I do not know what I supposedly said and you will not inform me until I resign. I offered to apologize if I misconstrued a statement about anyone out of anger or jokingly. And I apologize to that person and to the entire board.

"Let it be noted that you have assured me today if I will resign, there will [be] no lawsuit for myself or the entire board."

Knight's resignation left the seven-member county school board with only six members at a time when it is in the midst of attempting to hire a new director of county schools to replace Dr. Joe Parkins, who is scheduled to retire effective June 30.