The Athens City Board of Education may find itself with two fewer members in the coming months.

The City Council voted during Monday’s meeting to authorize Mayor Ronnie Marks and City Attorney Shane Black to request an official opinion from Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall on whether or not the board should have seven or five members.

The vote passed 3-0, with council members Dana Henry and Chris Seibert unable to attend the meeting.

“General state law provides city boards of education will have five board members,” Black said. “In Athens, since the early 1970s, for almost 50 years, the city has been operating under a local law that provides that the city board of education has seven, not five, members. There have been subsequent changes over the years to the general law in the state.”

The school board has five members appointed by district and two at-large members. The two at-large members, Russell Johnson and Tim Green, are up for reappointment in May.

Black said given the changes in the state law and the upcoming reappointment, now is a good time to ask the state attorney general whether or not the local law continues to prevail.

“General laws usually prevail over local laws,” Black said. “The question to be posed is does the local law remain in effect or does the general law control?”

Johnson said the local law providing for seven board members goes back to 1972. He said a tweak to the state law said city school boards should have five members but can have seven if approved by a statewide referendum.

“Athens never did that, so they have asked for an attorney general’s opinion to see what’s the status of the two at-large positions,” he said. “My understanding from talking to the City Council is they are not going to do any action on that until it is resolved by the attorney general. There is no need in appointing somebody to that position, and then a month from now, the attorney general says you can only have five.”

Johnson said the way board positions work in Alabama, if the City Council does not appoint anyone to replace the at-large positions, he and Green will remain on the board until a replacement is appointed. He said Green has already been in “limbo” like this in the past after a split 2-2 vote by the Council did not appoint a successor.

If the attorney general says there should only be five board members, however, Marks said the two at-large positions will be removed.

ACS board members are appointed for five-year terms with no limit on the number of terms an individual may serve.

Johnson has been on the board since 2006 and is the current president of the entity. Green has served on the board for around a decade.