The Shenendehowa Central School District Board of Education discussed procedures to fill a vacant board seat and directed staff to open an appointment process rather than hold a costly special election.

Board members reviewed district policy that allows the board to fill a vacancy by appointment within 90 days or hold a special election. Several members said a special election would require time and resources the district cannot spare this year and favored an appointment after public interviews. "It seems to me a pretty clear decision that we don't want to spend the time and resources to do a special election," one board member said.

The board described the proposed appointment process: solicit letters of interest and resumes from qualified residents, set a deadline for submissions (discussed around Dec. 16), conduct public interviews with prepared questions and equal time for candidates, deliberate in public or executive session as appropriate and then take a public vote. Members discussed voting mechanics — whether to use yes/no confirmation rounds or ranking — and agreed to avoid a grading system that had caused concern in a prior vacancy process. The board emphasized that the process must be transparent and that deliberations and the vote would be public.

Officials noted that an appointed candidate would serve until the next regular election and, if appointed early in the year, would need to run in the next May election to continue serving. The board asked administrators to produce a public notice with eligibility criteria, submission instructions and a timeline for the application and interview process.

Provenance: topicintro block_162 (tc 00:32:50) — vacancy discussion begins; topfinish block_224 (tc 00:48:08) — board direction to prepare application process and deadlines.