If You Ask Me / By Martha Knight

School board vacancies occur from time to time, and then they must be filled somehow. But how?

In school districts of our “class” the remaining school board members get to choose the replacement member. But, as I read the applicable law, they need to do it promptly. Timing is important.

I am trying to remember the last time a school board vacancy was filled in our school district. Maybe it was when Dawn Fink resigned. It was filled by the McKean County Court of Common Pleas. Why not by the board itself?

Because the board had 30 days to fill its vacancy. After that, if the board has not been able to , the court could appoint someone—if ten or more qualified electors of the school district petitioned the court to do so.

That is, it doesn’t automatically go to the court for action, if the 30 day local appointment period has passed. The board can still act, unless and until a petition is filed with the court.

I mentioned that timing is important. It can be tricky, too. So it is important when a school board member resigns—and when that resignation is effective.

Important because there are times when the board might not meet more than once, in 30 days after the resignation, to reach a decision on whom to appoint.

Our board meets on second and fourth Monday evenings, except when it doesn’t. Second Mondays are the “regular” meetings of the board, with most monthly reports, and bill list and payroll actions, and most major matters dealt with.

Fourth Monday meetings are known as “committee-of-the-whole” meetings, but in establishing its meeting dates at the beginning of a school board year, the Port Allegany School Board has been stating that those meetings can be used to handle any business that the board needs to deal with, in addition to the planning and studying and discussing that would be expected to happen at committee-of-the-whole meetings. So there is little difference between how regular meetings and COTW meetings are conducted. Filling a board vacancy could happen at either one.

(Historical note: years ago, school boards and some other official bodies used to hold “work sessions” as opposed to action meetings, and various committees would meet, and even the whole board could meet as a committee-of-the-whole, without those meetings being open or public. Revisions in the Open Meetings or Sunshine laws made it clear that committees and sub-groups were to meet in public, too, and work sessions must be public as well, because the public is entitled to view the deliberative process, and discussion leading up to decisions, not just the votes on final decisions. Thus the public has an opportunity to weigh in before it’s “too late.”)

Sometimes the rhythm of second-and-fourth Mondays is interrupted. An occasional meeting date might have to be pushed ahead or back a bit because of a holiday. Also, our board has a local tradition (which it can ignore whenever it pleases) of taking some time off in the summer and leaving the administration to deal with bills and such, “with subsequent approval by the board.”

The summer hiatus usually has the board not meeting after the early meeting in June, typically the one when the annual General Fund Budget is adopted, until the regular meeting in August. This year the board and a search committee were somewhat active in that period, though, with important positions to be filled.

Another time our school board departs from its regular rhythm is in December. School boards are supposed to hold their reorganization meetings on the first Monday of December. That is when newly elected board members are seated, in municipal election years such as this one—and when re-elected board members commence their new terms. Also, the board elects its officers for the coming year, and takes care of some other organizational matters.

Usually our board does not meet again until January.

So obviously there can be lapses of more than 30 days between school board meetings. A board’s “certain” opportunity to fill its own vacancy can expire fairly easily.

Some boards choose to “advertise” for candidates for appointment, and consider the relative qualifications of those, and find one that a majority can agree on. But that is not required. Allowing time for the advertising and the application and consideration processes would really push that deadline.

Another complicating factor right now is that our board will lose at least one current board member by the end of November, because Ron Caskey did not seek reelection; and at least one new board member will be elected. Will this shift the “factions” on the board enough to affect how they would fill a board vacancy? I’d say that is possible. Would that affect the timing of a resignation? Seems to me an outgoing board member might be interested in seeing his/her seat filled by a like-minded individual, if possible. Who could best control that? The local board, rather than the court, it seems to me. But there may be a power shift between factions.

If the 30 days run and someone organizes a petition for a court appointment, there is no guarantee the petition can control who gets appointed. The court can call for applications, or haul off and choose someone of its choosing (a “qualified elector” of the school district”: someone entitled to vote there).

The Court of Common Pleas sits “en banc,” or as a body of all (both) judges of that court, to make that decision. That would be President Judge John Pavlock and Associate Judge Chris Hauser. Together they would decide.

Gary Hardes has not resigned, last I heard, and we do not know that he will—only that he has had to be absent and has made tentative plans to move from the area. I am sure we all wish him and his Dee the best, in health and all matters. But if he or anyone else were to resign (not a light decision, of course), there would be more board changes than the election one.

Peace.