By Dane Anderson, Staff Writer

Members of the Eanes school board named former University of Texas at Arlington assistant professor James Kallison as the newest member to the board by a unanimous vote Monday afternoon. Kallison fills the seat of former Eanes school board member Gail King, who moved out of state in July.

Kallison recently retired from the Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies at UTA, where he taught finance and educational governance to teachers. His areas of expertise while at UTA included institutional planning, student affairs, retention, developmental education, accountability and policy issues.

Kallison vied with eight other applicants for the board position. He will hold the interim position until the next school board election in May.

“His unique qualifications, his training and his background in the educational field set him apart,” said Jim Strickland, Eanes school board president. “His knowledge of education finance and board procedures will allow him to hit the ground running,”

Strickland said Kallison will add a different perspective and area of expertise to the seven-member school board.

Members of the Eanes school board interviewed all nine candidates for the board position during interviews open to the public at the administration building from 8:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. Monday.

Kallison said he threw his hat into the ring for the school board seat because he felt it important to serve his community. Kallison’s son, Nathan Kallison, will be a junior at Westlake High School in the fall. An older son, David Kallison, graduated from Westlake High School in 2004.

“I felt, with my 37 years of experience in education, I had the expertise and the time to make a genuine contribution to the board,” James Kallison said.

The new board member said that one of the challenges faced by the Eanes school district and all districts in Texas would be to work with the limited amount of financial resources available to them during the next few years.

Superintendent Nola Wellman told board members during a meeting on July 29 that the district would need to rely on its general fund to balance school district deficits in the coming years, starting with a $3.6 million dollar pull for the 2009-2010 year. Wellman said she expected the general fund balance money available for such budget corrections to tap out by the 2013-2014 school year.

“Districts are capped (by the state) at a 2005-2006 revenue level,” Kallison said. “Expenditures have gone up and keep going up. It will be a great challenge given those limitations for us to make our dollars meet the needs.”

Kallison said his students at UTA were educators from all over the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex, and they made him aware of the challenges educators are facing across the state.

“It is my hope that we will get some relief in the next legislative session,” he said. “I think legislators are starting to hear the message loud and clear.”

Kallison said he wants to step into his role as board member and immediately take an active role in decisions. He said he would likely run for re-election to the school board in May. 

Other applicants for the board seat were former school board members Brad Shields and Beverly Smith Thomas and Sally Theodosis, Robert Wayne Holland, Wesley G. Ritchie, Pamela R. Horn, Ronna Martin and former school board election candidate Sharman Reed.

“The nine people who applied for the position were all outstanding,” Strickland said. “Any one of them would have made an excellent board member.”