Elmira school board to leave seat vacant

School board races across the state this fall will have a few of the greatest impacts in low-funded districts in which elected policymakers will address widespread capacity concerns and tight budgets that don’t add up to the increased need.

Five other counties in Maryland, including nearby Montgomery County, elect board members through a combination of by-district and at-large seats.

Of five school districts in Adams County, three have at-large seats up for election this fall: Adams 12 Five Star Schools, Adams 50 in Westminster and School District 27J in Brighton. “The district struggles to find candidates even in the general election”. Candidates have until noon, Friday, June 24, 2016, to file with terms for those school board members elected beginning November. 22, 2016.

“It is unfortunate that so many in our communities don’t know who is running for their school board”, Caughey said. “I think [the bill] will clarify that confusion”.

The Adams 12 Five Star Schools Board of Education has five directors, with seats that are assigned by district but who are elected at large to what are typically four-year terms. The 27J directors are four-year terms with the exception of District 4, which is a two-year term.

This isn’t the first time a switch to elections by district has been proposed for the school board. She represented special education matters while working for the Department of Defense and served on the Westgate Charter School’s board as director and secretary.

With two daughters attending school in Adams 12 since they started kindergarten in 2010, Mitchell has become increasingly involved with the district.

At the heart of the issue is the name change of the levy, which is now known as the Educational Programs and Operations Levy (EP&O), and used to be the Maintenance and Operations levy (M&O).

Other ongoing goals for the 27J education board include increasing graduation rates by 2 percent every year until a 95 percent rate is reached and maintained, and increasing composite ACT scores by.

The Elmira School Board of Education is considering reducing the number of seats on the board from 9 to 7 and is using a member’s departure as an opportunity to review that possibility. Blanco, named Teacher of the Year in 2012, was one of eight who sought the appointment to Curbelo’s seat.

The Howard Board of Education was an appointed board until the 1970s. No one opted to seek the District 4 or District 7 seats, hence the upcoming vacancies.

There is no campaigning for the seats – just a simple application and a few questions, plus a meeting with the current board of directors.

Reid and Scott Moore were on the ballot and re-elected to three-year terms during the May 19 election.

Board Vice President Brad Paulsen, himself a school architect, called the repeated efforts to get public feedback on the project “unique” and said the residents would have a chance to form the solution, not be told the solution.