Joe Smith was elected to a new term as chairman of the County School Board on Thursday night despite protestations from a fellow board member. Karitsa Mosley Jones, a longtime board member, was also nominated, but the tally was 7-4 in favor of the incumbent. After the vote, board member Jackie Thomas said, "For those of you in the audience, that's why we have DEI." Smith votes were Mr. Smith, Gary Kuehn, Ben Daugherty, Steve Slater, Jodi Schaffer, Felice Hadden and Larry Grohn. Ms. Thomas said afterward, "These decisions were already decided before we got here."