Chartiers Valley School Board will not appoint an interim school director to fill the vacancy left by Jamie Stevenson, who resigned last week with two years left in his term.
Instead, the board will conduct its next few meetings with eight members until voters choose a ninth on Nov. 7.
“We are not going to appoint a short-term director,” board president Tony Mazzarini, said last night. “We are going to go through the election process and we will welcome our new director in December at our reorganization meeting.”
It’s unclear how operating with one less member might impact the outcomes of any upcoming school board action. There haven’t been many nail-bitingly close votes at board meetings recently, except for the time that a last-minute phone-in vote saved a motion to pay approve additional construction costs.
However, Stevenson’s departure does add a bit of intrigue to the election, which until last week, seemed like it was all over but the voting, as the Signal-Item explains:
Until last week, there were four candidates running for four school board seats. Barring a surprise write-in campaign, incumbents Mazzarini, Julie Murphy, and Eric Kraemer will remain on the board, and Brian Kopec will fill the seat currently held by Alka Patel, who is not running for re-election.
Now, Democratic and Republican officials have until Sept. 18 to select the candidate who will run for Stevenson’s seat on their party’s ticket.
The party committee representative from each voting ward in the Chartiers Valley area can cast a vote toward selecting a candidate.
Source: Signal-Item