A former state Senate president appears to be returning to officialdom as a member of the Kansas Board of Regents.

Current Regent Clay Blair said he expected Dick Bond, who served in the Senate from 1986 to 2000, to join the board June 30, when Blair’s term expires.

Another regent, Steve Clark, also will leave the board June 30. Regent Floris Jean Hampton’s term also expires then, and she said she was unsure if she would be reappointed.

All three regents have been on the board since 1999 and are eligible for at least one more four-year term. But Blair and Clark said Friday they didn’t want to be reappointed. Hampton, of Dodge City, wouldn’t say whether she was lobbying Gov. Bill Graves to serve another term.

“I’m willing to serve if he asks,” she said. “It’s been a very rewarding and challenging experience.”

Don Brown, a spokesman for Graves, said the governor wouldn’t announce his replacements or reappointments until the end of June.

Though Blair, who has served two years as the board’s chairman, said he hadn’t talked directly to Graves about the reappointments, he said sources had told him Bond would be appointed to the board as his replacement.

Both Bond and Blair live in Overland Park. Bond didn’t return phone calls from the Journal-World this week.

Lt. Gov. Gary Sherrer  who has been mentioned as a potential replacement for Clark on the board  said he also expected Graves to appoint Bond. But Sherrer said speculation about his own appointment was premature.

“I would be deeply honored, but I don’t know where I’m going to be” after his term as lieutenant governor ends in January, Sherrer said. “Until I know where I am going in the real world, I am not a candidate for any appointment.”

Clark, of Wichita, said he was leaving the board for “business and family obligations.” He said he planned to recommend two potential board members as his replacement, but declined to name them.

Regent Jack Wempe of Lyons said he would support Sherrer’s appointment.

“Gary would certainly be an asset,” he said. “He’s a good man.”

Regent Lew Ferguson of Topeka, who was appointed last year, questioned whether Sherrer had the time for an additional duty between June 30 and the end of his term.

“I can’t imagine him taking on that with his other two jobs as secretary of commerce and lieutenant governor,” Ferguson said. “I don’t even know the legality of that. I haven’t investigated it.”

And he said he didn’t think Sherrer’s appointment should be delayed until January, when his other duties expire.

“I personally would not like to see that,” he said. “I hope we have a full complement because we have some big issues before us.”

State law says there must be at least one regent from each congressional district, no two can be from the same county, and no more than five can be from the same political party.

Clark and Hampton are completing three-year terms on the regents. Blair completed a two-year term in 2001, but Graves appointed him to complete the unexpired term of Sylvia Robinson of Kansas City.

Brown said “hundreds” of people had expressed interest in the three regents’ positions, and that Graves would review dozens of applications before making a decision.

“I don’t think there’s anything finalized yet,” Brown said. “The governor may have a good idea who he’ll select, but he reserves the right to change his mind up until that time. It’s something the governor has been thinking about and working on for some time now.”

Staff writer Scott Rothschild contributed to this report.