From left, West Virginia State Delegate Bob Ferhenbacher, Dr. John Coe and Randy Modesitt chat while awaiting election results at the Wood County courthouse Tuesday evening. (Photo by Gwen Sour)

PARKERSBURG — Randy Modesitt won a seat on the Wood County Board of Education with 11,175 votes in unofficial results Tuesday.

He will serve the remaining 20 months of Debbie Hendershot’s term left vacant after she resigned in February to run for magistrate.

Calls to Modesitt Tuesday night and Wednesday were not returned.

The board appointed Rick Olcott to temporarily fill the vacancy at that time, with the seat placed on the ballot for this week’s general election. Olcott ran to finish that term and received 8,543 votes, behind Chad Conley with 9,122 and ahead of Ryan Henry with 2,050.

The council will meet today to discuss filling another vacancy when member Sarah Townsend resigned due to health issues this week.

Wood County Clerk Joe Gonzalez said the process to select a replacement will be the same as when Hendershot resigned, except no special election will be needed. The person the board decides to appoint will serve the remainder of Townsend’s term.

Gonzalez said the board has up to 45 days to name a replacement and that person will fill out the remainder of Townsend’s term.

By law, no more than two members can sit in the same magisterial district, three of which – A, B and C – in Wood County.

Towsend is from District C. Board member Ron Tice is from District A, with Board President Justin Raber and Board Member Judy Johnson both from District B.

Modesitt is from District A, which means there will now be two members from District A – Modesitt and Tice – so the board will only be able to appoint a replacement from District C.

The Wood County Board of Education will meet today at 6:00 pm at the board offices located at Plum and 13th Streets in Parkersburg. The meeting is open to the public and will be streamed online.

Douglass Huxley can be reached at [email protected]