By JIM BUTLER

A School Board majority Tuesday night kept the Bolton Academy on track after rescinding a vote that would have reversed nine months of planning and work.

The board, after hearing member Wally Fall’s request for reconsideration of his earlier vote, rejected Sandra Franklin’s proposal to allow all current Bolton students to finish high school there.

That contradicted votes in August and December that set minimum academic and behavioral records for staying at the Vance Avenue facility.

The school in August will open as an academic and arts academy for Grades 6-12, adding preK-Grade 5 in the foreseeable future.

Before Franklin’s motion got to a vote, Dr. Stephen Chapman offered a substitute to essentially stick with earlier enrollment decisions.

That substitute failed when Fall, out of the room for most of the discussion, voted no, though it appeared he was confused over the choice.

Subsequently Franklin’s motion passed.

As Supt. Jeff Powell, noting the vote nullified everything done in the Bolton project to this point, raised points about the quandary, Fall moved for reconsideration.

It should be noted that while Powell was posing points Chapman and Fall were having a tete-a-tete.

Asking for the new vote, Fall said he didn’t fully understand the options before voting.

He said he was having some difficulty, having just been released from a hospital after suffering a heart attack, and the matter “just slipped past me.”