NATCHEZ — A bill to make the Natchez-Adams School Board an elected office died in house committee Tuesday.

Sen. Bob Dearing, D-Natchez, authored the bill, which easily passed the senate with a 46-6 vote in early February.

The deadline for all bills to leave committee was Tuesday, Feb. 27.

Dearing said he was not sure why the bill never left committee.

“It was a non-partisan, non-controversial bill,” Dearing said. “The chairman just wouldn’t bring it up and it died.”

The chairman of the house of representatives’ education committee, Rep. Richard Bennett, R-Long Beach, did not respond to emails and calls Wednesday.

Dearing’s bill was first proposed by local leaders in Natchez — including Mayor Darrell Grennell and several members of the Board of Supervisors and Board of Aldermen — ahead of the 2017 legislative session.

The bill had heavy local support in the 2018 session as well, with Grennell saying he has supported the move for more than 20 years.