McComb optometrist Dr. Jarrold A. Harrell is being considered by Mayor Zach Patterson to fill a position on the McComb School District Board of Trustees.
In an April 10 letter to city selectmen, Patterson said he will nominate Harrell at Tuesday’s meeting of the board of mayor and selectmen. Harrell is the son of McComb High School basketball coach Hilton Harrell.
Patterson wrote that Harrell has “enthusiastically and graciously agreed to accept this position,” adding that Harrell will replace Maurice Chester on the board. Chester’s five-year term expired on Feb. 28, according to Patterson. It’s his second term on the board.
Chester said this morning that he’d be happy to serve at the will of the board.
“(The mayor) can make recommendations, but the buck really stops with the selectmen. If they want me to stay, then I’ll stay,” he said.
And Chester wants the public to realize what the school board’s role is.
“I would like for the citizens of McComb to read the Mississippi Code, Article 37, that tells you the duties and responsibilities of the school board members,” he said. “(People) seem to think we run the school, but we’re just overseers.”
Patterson called Harrell “a devout Christian with strong roots and a committed family man,” who lives in McComb. “I am sure you all know Dr. Jarrold A. Harrell, an outstanding, home-grown product and a stellar citizen with strong family ties.”
Patterson said Harrell was valedictorian of the 1999 class of McComb High School and received a full scholarship to Mississippi College, where he graduated magna cum laude in 2003.
Harrell also graduated magna cum laude in 2007 from Southern College of Optometry, Patterson said, and has two optometry practices in McComb on Delaware Avenue and Veterans Boulevard.
Harrell and his wife, Kimberly, who is also a practicing optometrist in McComb, have a 1-year-old daughter, Adria. They attend Pleasant Grove East McComb Missionary Baptist Church, where Harrell’s father is the pastor.
“Suffice it to say, Dr. Harrell is a McComb native with impressive credentials, qualifications and a willingness to serve his city and the McComb School District,” Patterson wrote.
Selectman Danny Esch said he didn’t know about Harrell’s nomination until he received Patterson’s letter.
“It was a surprise to me,” he said.
“As far as I know, Maurice Chester is still on the board, and I’m not going to do anything until I hear from him,” Esch said. “I don’t know if he wants to get off the board or if he has submitted a resignation.”
“I don’t know where the mayor gets this from,” he continued. “We get a letter from him, and the day after, we have a board meeting.
Selectman E.C. Nobles said he received the letter Friday, adding he planned to reach a decision on Harrell by Tuesday.
He believes naming Harrell to the board of trustees could cause a conflict of interest because of Harrell’s father’s position at McComb High School.
Nobles said he remembered when his father was named for a position on the board of trustees “but had to turn it down because my mother was employed by the school system.”
Selectman Melvin Joe Johnson said he had no problem with Harrell serving on the board of Trustees.
“If the position is open, I don’t see anything wrong with it,” he said. “I know his family and I know him. He’s done well in business and he’s well-educated.”
Johnson declined to discuss whether Harrell’s position on the board of trustees would be a conflict of interest.
Selectman Robert Maddox declined to comment on the nomination because his wife is a school district employee.
Selectman Robert Earl Smith said he believes Harrell is a good candidate for the board.
“He’s a product of the McComb School System, and he can do a lot of good for the school system,” Smith said.
“He has a young daughter, and the way his practice is going, she’ll be in the McComb Public School System,” he said.
Smith said he did not believe that Harrell’s position on the board would be a conflict of interest.
“I don’t think that will be a problem,” he said. “It might be a different story if it was his wife, but I don’t believe it would be because it is his father.”
Attempts to contact Selectman Wade Lamb for this story were unsuccessful.
