One by one Carmel Clay School Board members paid tribute to their late president Stephen A. Backer at Monday night’s meeting.

Backer, 63, died of cancer on March 15. His funeral services were last week.

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“Steve was not just my fellow board member, he was a very close friend of mine,” Andrew Klein said. “In many ways, he was a role model and a mentor and I’m going to miss him tremendously.”

Board member Greg Phillips said Backer was the hub and he will be greatly missed

“As a board, we’re going to have really reinvent ourselves to fill that gap and come up with new leadership,” Phillips said.

“As a board, we’re going to have really reinvent ourselves to fill that gap and come up with new leadership,” Phillips said.

The procedure calls for the board to choose another board member in 30 days. Board vice president Bruce Calabrese said there will be executive session early next week. Calabrese said there is a little flexibility to the 30-day deadline.

“But if we don’t do it in a certain time frame, a judge will do it for us,” Calabrese said. “We’ll advertise (for the opening), screen candidates and interview. When it’s all said and done, we appoint the member.”

Calabrese said the board member would serve until the next election in about 13 months.

Calabrese said the board also will vote soon on who will take over as president.