An election to select a new member to the Lamar County School Board of Trustees will be held on April 26, and will involve about 1,000 Pearl River County voters who will be part of that School District.

Nance Stokes, Pearl River County Circuit Clerk, said the election would affect 940 voters in Pearl River County who are now part of the recently consolidated Lamar County and Lumberton School District. These voters lived in what was previously the Lumberton School District.

Stokes said potential candidates have until the end of this month to qualify to run for the seat.

Consolidation of the Lumberton School District was mandated under Senate Bill 2500, which passed last year and stated the representatives of the Lumberton, Lamar and Poplarville school districts would work to dissolve the Lumberton School District. The bill further states that the students enrolled in the former Lumberton Public School District would be assigned to either the Lamar County School District or the Poplarville School District as determined by each student’s place of residence, ultimately meaning any students living in Pearl River County would be transferred to the Poplarville School District.

However, the Lumberton and Lamar County representatives decided to vote to keep all students of the Lumberton School District, regardless of place of residence, and send them all a school within the Lamar County School District, Pearl River County Board of Supervisors Vice President Hudson Holliday said.

“Many children from north Pearl River County go to school in Lumberton and the issue is we are trying to get all PRC children out of the Lamar School system,” Holliday said.

Holliday said he wants children living in this county to attend Poplarville schools because the District is A rated.