Following a lengthy executive session Thursday night, the Trigg County Public Schools Board of Education moved unanimously to approve two new board members — replacing the unfinished terms of Charlene Sheehan and Clara-Beth Hyde.
Jim Mullen has been selected as the new District 1 representative, while Jamie Gapp has been selected as the new District 3 representative.
After serving in the U.S. Air Force from 1969-73, Mullen attended the University of Iowa in Iowa City — earning a bachelor of science in pharmacy. From 1977 until his retirement in 2017, he worked for Walgreens — eventually working his way up to pharmacy supervisor in charge of 24 pharmacies and their respective staffs.
For the past 7-to-8 years, he has worked alongside Angela Hatfield and Sara Wallace in a part-time role for the school district, targeting remedial reading and mathematics, and Mullen is an active member of the Cadiz-Trigg County Planning Commission.
Gapp, meanwhile, was most recently introduced as part of the Trigg County Chamber of Commerce’s Leadership Trigg Class of 2025-26. Following his time in the U.S. Army, he attended the Kentucky Department of Criminal Justice Training in Richmond, earning his police officer certification in May 2013. From there, he served in the Hopkinsville Police Department from 2012 until a medical retirement in 2021.
From July 2021 until February 2023, he served as a detective for the Commonwealth’s Attorney Office in Hopkinsville, assisting on felony-level investigations, and he followed that with a short tenure in the Kentucky Office of the Inspector General from September 2023 until April 2024.
He earned his associates of science degree from Hopkinsville Community College in 2020, as well as a bachelor of science in public and community health from Murray State University in 2023, and he currently maintains a position on the City of Cadiz Code Enforcement Board.
School Attorney Jack Lackey Jr. confirmed there was a small pool of qualified candidates who applied before the set deadlines.
The appointments will be effective until the November 2026 regular election, and their responsibilities include: setting policy to govern the district; hiring/evaluating the superintendent; and levying taxes and adopting the district budget.
It is worth noting that Gapp and Mullen are the first men to serve on the Trigg County Schools Board of Education since 2016 — when board chair Mike Davis lost his 5th District seat to Theresa Cunningham Pool in the general election.
Gapp and Mullen can opt to run in the November 2026 election against any other potential announcing candidacies, or they may simply choose to fill these short terms.
