Five people have applied for the Penn Harris Madison trustee seat vacated by the recent resignation of Penn Township representative Matt Chaffee.
School board President Chris Riley says the board met in executive session Monday night to discuss the candidates. They decided to interview them during a public meeting at 6 p.m. Oct. 28. Alphabetically they are John “Todd” Douthit, Brandon Kastner, William “Matt” Ludwig, Jennifer Smoker and Ryan Woodruff.
Each interview will last a maximum of 30 minutes. Applicants will be given an opportunity to make an opening statement. After that, board members will ask them questions.
Chaffee was elected in 2022 to a four-year term that runs through next year. The board had voted to ask him to quit in May of last year, after a rightwing blogger published a story alleging he had solicited prostitutes and had an alcohol problem. Chaffee declined to resign then but announced Oct. 6 that he would indeed step down.
Chaffee has denied the allegations and is suing the blogger for defamation. He has said the lawsuit will clear his name.
