A total of 22 board of education seats for Rockland’s eight public school districts will be up for grabs when voters go to the polls May 17.
Petitions for the seats were due at 5 p.m. Monday.
In East Ramapo, the filing deadline was extended Monday to 5 p.m. May 3. The last-minute extension was granted for the seat held by Aron Wieder, vice president of the school board, after a candidate for that seat withdrew his petition Monday, school officials said.
South Orangetown and Pearl River are Rockland’s smallest school boards at five members each. East Ramapo has a nine-member board. All other districts have seven seats.
Three districts, East Ramapo, North Rockland and South Orangetown, have specific seats for board members. The rest hold at-large elections, so the largest vote-getter takes the position.
The school board makes decisions that affect district policy, determines the details of the budget, hires and evaluates the superintendent and signs collective bargaining contracts with employees.
School board members generally serve for three years and hold unpaid positions. Terms will run from July 2011 to June 2014.
In East Ramapo, four seats are open. So far, Brenda Carole Anderson and Daniel Beno Schwartz are running for Wieder’s seat. Three candidates – Elye Kramer, Antonio Luciano and Yehuda Weissmandel – are running for the seat once held by former school board President Nathan Rothschild. Incumbent Moshe Hopstein is running against Margaret Hatton, a public school advocate who has unsuccessfully run for the board in the past. JoAnne Thompson, who was appointed to the school board in November to fill a vacant seat, is running unopposed.
{Noam Amdurski-Matzav.com Newscenter}
