51¶ÌÊÓƵ

The Nebraska State Board of Education faced its first challenge as a board evenly divided down political lines Thursday, voting more than 50 times to elect its board leadership, providing a glimpse into possible future gridlock.

Both Elizabeth Tegtmeier, a Republican representing western Nebraska's District 7, and Deborah Neary, a Democrat serving Omaha's District 8, were nominated for board president at Thursday's orientation meeting at the Nebraska Department of Education's east Lincoln office.

But the officially nonpartisan, eight-person board split evenly between Democrats and Republicans after last November's election struggled to coalesce around a board president for nearly three hours.

"This is dysfunction that I have never seen in my six years on the state board and my many years before that watching the state board," Neary said. "I know we're better than this."

For 53 elections in a row, both Tegtmeier and Neary received four votes each, falling short of the five-vote majority necessary. After more than two hours of voting — and some heated discussion among members — the board went into a recess during which Tegtmeier and Neary struck a deal.

Tegtmeier, who served as board president last year, returned to tell the board that Neary agreed to let Tegtmeier reassume the role if Tegtmeier declined to run for the position next year. Tegtmeier also agreed to appoint an even number of Republicans and Democrats as chairpersons of board committees and split the makeup of the Executive Committee evenly between parties.

In the end, in an unanimous 54th vote, Tegtmeier was elected board president and Neary was elected vice president. Thursday's meeting far surpassed the 11 votes the board took to elect a vice chair in 2023.

"I'm going to work with everybody, not just the ones who have the same letter after their names," Tegtmeier said.

The board, which holds its regular meeting Friday morning in Lincoln, welcomed four new members this week: Kristin Christensen of District 1, which covers a wide swath of Lancaster County, including Lincoln; Maggie Douglas of District 2, Lisa Schonhoff of District 3 and Liz Renner in District 4. All four incumbents whose seats were up for election declined to run in November.

The group of first-year members, who will serve four-year terms, were sworn in at the Capitol on Thursday afternoon ahead of the meeting.

With the new wave of faces on the board comes fresh voices, ideas, perspectives and passions, Neary said. As the board enters into a new generation, Neary said she is excited to work alongside both new and old members.

"I've watched us change the culture of our work every time we go through an election and the addition and subtraction of board members. And I'm very optimistic about the future of our work," she told the Journal Star. "I like that there's young energy on the board, and a lot of young people are getting involved, and I really believe that's essential."

In previous years, the board's makeup has been split 4-4 between Republicans and Democrats, but board member Patti Gubbels, a Republican no longer on the board, often sided with Democrats, avoiding the type of gridlock that tied up the board for hours Thursday.