AKRON, Ohio - The clock is ticking for the Akron Board of Education to fill the seat left vacant after John Otterman tendered his resignation Monday. Otterman resigned just days after Akron police found him passed out in his SUV from a suspected fentanyl drug overdose.

Under the Ohio Revised Code, the school board has 30 days to fill the vacant seat or it falls to Summit County Probate Court to choose a replacement.

The school board will meet at 9 a.m. Saturday, Jan. 27, at the Akron Family Restaurant, 250 West Market St., to discuss filling the vacant seat, said Lisa Mansfield, school board member and former president.

The school board members received Otterman's emailed letter of resignation when they arrived for Monday's meeting. They had a full meeting agenda that left no time to discuss the resignation.

"But we're not going to drag this out," Mansfield said. "On Saturday, we'll decide what route to take."

Under the Ohio Revised Code the board has several options to fill a vacant seat. During Mansfield's eight-year tenure, the board has exercised three, and each method has worked out well, she said.

Options include:

Appoint a former board member who has recently served

Appoint a candidate who has run but not won a seat

Conduct an interview process

Several potential candidates have reached out to school board members since Monday, expressing interest, but the board has yet to weigh in on the individuals or the preferred process, said Akron School Board President Patrick Bravo.

"Timing has made it difficult to get everyone together," he said. "We'll be announcing the process once we know what the process is."

Neither Bravo nor Mansfield expect to come out of Saturday's meeting with a candidate chosen.

"This way we can have a more detailed discussion about what we would be looking for and how we would like to do it without rushing," she said.

Prior to Otterman's resignation, the most recent school board vacancy opened when Veronica Sims was elected to an Akron City Council at-large seat in November 2015.

The Akron School Board then appointed Bravo to fulfill Sims' term. Last November Bravo was voted by the electorate for full term. Earlier in January, he was voted Akron School Board president.

Otterman, who was elected to the Akron School Board in 2016, was already under censure imposed last November after police found him in his SUV with slurred speech and glazed eyes. In the vehicle was an unmarked prescription bottle of Xanax. Otterman pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct and was sentenced to a year of probation, but failed to notify the school board.

In the latest incident on Jan. 18, officers administered four doses of Narcan, a drug that can reverse the symptoms of an opiate overdose. Otterman was found in the front driver's seat of a Ford Escape on East Cuyahoga Falls Avenue near North Howard Street.

Otterman was not charged in the incident. He was given an immunity form for possessing fentanyl, according to a police report says. Ohio's new Good Samaritan law gives callers and people overdosing on heroin, opioids or other drugs immunity from arrest if they get a referral for treatment within 30 days of getting medical assistance.

Want more Akron news?

, an email newsletter delivered at 5:30 a.m. Monday through Friday