School Board Elections Decided, Congratulations Dan Klein of Madbury

Dan Klein, unopposed for the
 Madbury ORCSD board seat

As of 4:57 pm today, it appears the Oyster River school board elections are essentially over.   Congratulations to our newest school board member to be, Daniel Klein of Madbury. Congratulations also to continuing school board members Maria Barth of Lee and Al Howland of Durham.  Maria was Chair for two years beginning 2012, while Al is currently Vice Chair. Maria, Al and Dan each will begin a new three year term representing their respective towns at the March 18, 2015 school board meeting.  I wish them all good luck.

Of course nothing is official until election day, March 10, 2015.  This year the three town-specific seats are up, so there are three separate races.  Five pm today, Friday January 30, 2015, was the end of the filing period.  Only Maria, Al and Dan filed to run, one for each town seat, so each will appear on the ballot unopposed.  I predict they'll all win.  There is always the possibility of  write-in campaigns.

Dr. Ed Charle currently holds the Madbury seat.  Dr. Charle has unfortunately declined to seek reelection.  I for one am extremely grateful for his service.   He served at an important time in our district's history.  Merely by getting elected by a landslide, Dr. Charle made a major advance in healing our district.  He decisively beat then-incumbent Jim Kach, whose offensive tweets, secret efforts to replace the superintendent and refusal to resign had seriously divided the community.  Over his tenure, Dr. Charle was liaison to the sustainability committee, which he shepherded from annual warrant article funding to an integral part of the operating budget.  We'll miss you, Ed.

It's hard to believe, but this Tuesday, February 3 at ORHS 7pm is the Deliberative Session, a real election where a small fraction of the community who bothers to show up (usually around 120 people) gets to amend the warrant articles before they're voted on on March 10th.  I'll write more about this soon, but with the board apparently decided, the election will mostly be about the field bond and the budget as a whole.

Candidates night is Tuesday, February 17th.  I'm sure we'll learn more about the new Madbury representative to the board, Dan Klein, in the upcoming weeks.

Here are some procedural details, just in case you want to know.  The ORCSD board consists of seven seats: a Madbury seat, a Lee seat, a Durham seat and four at-large seats.  Each seat has a three year term.  Every three years, like this year, the three town-specific seats are up for election.  Each town's seat has a separate race on the ballot, and the candidates in a given town race all have to live in that town.  Somewhat oddly, the school district ballots are always identical in all three towns so each district voter gets to vote in all three town-specific races, not just in the one for their own town.  In each of the intervening two years, two at-large seats are up for election.  All the at-large candidates are on the ballot in a single race, each voter gets to choose two and the top two vote-getters win the seats.  If a vacancy opens up, the board may appoint an eligible person to serve until the next election for which potential candidates are afforded a full filing period.   A special election race to fill the vacancy for the remainder of the term is added to the ballot.

Again, congratulations to Dan Klein, Al Howland and Maria Barth, each running unopposed and thus each very likely be elected on March 10 to new three year terms on the Oyster River Cooperative School District School Board.