Anyone have experience with appointing a candidate to fill a vacant BOE seat? We have 3 candidates for a seat. Interviewing? In or out of executive session? In or out of a public meeting (3 BOE members max. in attendance)?Thank you
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We had a trustee resign and looked into replacing... We decided to not replace unless we became "non-functioning" - that did happen so we asked for candidates to send in their credentials and then we just chose from there. That person did NOT run again in May and a new person was elected.
I believe (my own personal opinion) that the election process is the way to go. Hence my reluctance to choose someone. Our district though, is fraught with politics and was another reason I was reluctant to appoint someone to an elected seat.
How long do you have to fill the seat? I’ve heard it can wait until the vote in May and I’ve heard it needs to be filled within 90 days. We have issues on our board that need to be fixed prior to adding a new member.
We have done that twice since I have been on the board. Once we used a former board member and the other time a runner up candidate from the previous election.
Last year we had one vacancy due to a member’s being elected a justice. Several community members expressed interest in filling the seat, so we asked each potential candidate to write a letter answering several questions such as: why do you want to be a member of the Willsboro Board of Education and what qualifications do you have for the position? Based upon the responses we received, we made our choice, and she has fulfilled our expectations. Ours is a very small district, so it’s easy to assess candidates.
We just finished this process with five candidates for one seat. We asked the candidates to come to the public meeting and explain their interest and background specifically addressing three questions. We then met in executive session to discuss our thoughts about the candidates. I made it clear that we could not do anything that seemed as if we were taking a vote in executive session. At our next meeting, I made a motion to appoint one of the candidates. That motion was approved unanimously. It was a tough process and I would have preferred to put it out to a vote if we could have had a normal voting process.
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I believe (my own personal opinion) that the election process is the way to go. Hence my reluctance to choose someone. Our district though, is fraught with politics and was another reason I was reluctant to appoint someone to an elected seat.