Groton School Board member Marty Weismantel elected vice chairman Marty of SDHSAA board
PIERRE — Kelly Messmer, the principal of the Harding County School District, will be the next chairman of the South Dakota High School Activities Association board of directors.
Messer was elected at the association’s board meeting Thursday.
Elected vice chairman was Groton School Board member Marty Weismantel. Messmer and Weismantel will start their leadership of the association board at its July meeting.
Messmer’s board will have some new faces. Replacing current board chairman Mark Murphy of Aberdeen, who represented school boards from large schools, will be Pierre School Board member Randy Hartmann. Hartmann was the only candidate for that position on the board.
The association will need to hold a run-off election to see who will represent the board from Division III schools. None of the three candidates received 50% of the vote in the first election. The run-off election will be between principals Adam Shaw of Madison and Jeff Sheehan of Hamlin.
The association will also hold an election to replace board member Mike Talley of the Rapid City School District. Talley was elected as a principal, but now has a different job in education. Nominated for the position are principal Daniel Conrad of Sioux Falls Jefferson, principal Ryan Rollinger of Harrisburg and assistant principal Krista Inman of Rapid City Stevens.
If there is no run-off to replace Talley, the election winners may take their positions on the board at its July meeting.
At Thursday’s meeting, board member Dani Walking Eagle, whose term was ending, was appointed to fill out the last year of the term of board member Barry Mann of Wakpala who retired. Walking Eagle will serve as the Native American at-large member of the board.
After the association’s annual meeting in April, member schools voted on two amendments to its constitution, both of which passed handily. One dealt with recruitment violations and the other with ejections from contests.
This article originally appeared on Watertown Public Opinion: Harding County's Messmer named chairman of SDHSAA board of directors
