In some communities, fewer people are willing to run for the school board
By Carol Chmelynski
8/12/03 -- When Big Hollow School District 38 in Ingleside, Ill., had three openings on its school board earlier this year, no one filed to be a candidate.
That might be the extreme, but school boards across the nation are finding fewer people are interested in running for the board.
School board leaders attribute the dearth of candidates to a variety of factors, ranging from increasing demands on school boards to stronger accountability measures for schools and students.
Shrinking school district budgets force board members to make unpopular decisions about closing schools and cutting staff. Some potential candidates are discouraged by the extensive workload, which leaves less time for family and other activities.
In Big Hollow, Superintendent Ron Pazanin suspects the lack of board candidates was due to the challenges the 950-student district is facing, including growing enrollment, the need for new schools, a mandatory tax cap, and accountability issues connected to test scores.
The district ended up filling the board seats with appointed board members, Pazanin says. He hopes more people will be interested in running for the board in 2005 when all seven seats will be open.
In Rochester, Mich., only two candidates entered the race for two open school board seats this year, but the district still had to spend $24,000 on an uncontested election with no ballot questions.
State law required the district to hold an election even if there was only one candidate for each board seat, because write-in candidates can come forward as late as the Friday before a Monday election, says Donn Tignanelli, director of community relations.
"This is a very difficult job that demands a four-year time commitment," he says, "and as in all districts, board members find it hard to focus on innovation and creativity because they have to deal with diminishing revenues and resources."
Tignanelli says the 14,000-student district tries to get the word out on a regular basis about the importance of school board service. "We really work hard with our community organizations and parent-teacher organizations to try to identify leaders early who could come forward and fill these positions."
Lakeland Central School District in Westchester County, N.Y., has had problems in the past fielding enough board candidates.
Two years ago, there were three open seats and only one person on the ballot, but "then we had six people come forward as write-ins," says district spokesperson James Van Develde. Whoever gets the most write-in votes wins, even if it's only by one vote.
Next May, there will be three, three-year seats open, but Van Develde says it's too early to tell how many people will come forward. "I think people are pretty satisfied with the district and therefore we tend not to get a lot of candidates," he says. "But seven or eight years ago, when we had difficulties with the budget, we had eight candidates."
David Ernst, director of communications and research with the New York State School Boards Association (NYSSBA), agrees that there's nothing like controversy to bring out the candidates.
A survey conducted by NYSSBA in 2001 found nearly one-third of all school board candidates in New York ran unopposed.
"It's pretty much a response to local issues," Ernst says. "You can have a district where there's not much interest in running and then controversies will occur. Some people will become disenchanted with the leadership, or the superintendent, or the board, or the tax rate, and then you'll have a slew of candidates."
"We would prefer that seats be competitive; that's the tried and true way to get the best candidates," he says, "but it doesn't always happen." He tells board members they can create controversy to drum up candidates, "but the better way is to take responsibility yourself for lining up your successors."
A pamphlet published by NYSSBA points out that people are far more likely (63 percent) to volunteer their services when they are asked to do so, than when they are not (25 percent).
Not all districts have a dearth of board candidates. "For the last 10 years, we have had very active participation in board elections and we get good, qualified candidates," says Wayne Blanton, executive director of the Florida Schools Boards Association.
There were more than 600 candidates for 186 board openings across the state, he says. "Some people ran unopposed, but there were two or three candidates for a lot of seats and eight or nine for many others."
Florida school districts are very large, he notes, which contributes to the high interest among school board candidates. The state only has 67 districts, and they are countywide.
Elsewhere it tends to be the smaller districts that are most likely to have a shortage of candidates.
In Colorado, some districts even canceled their elections because no one ran or races were not contested," says Jane Urschel, associate executive director of the Colorado Association of School Boards (CASB). An election can cost anywhere from $3,000 to $30,000, depending on the size of the district.
By contrast, there were 14 candidates for a vacant seat on the Denver school board. "I think the closer you are to the capital, the more people are interested and in tune with politics," Urshel says.
In most cases, the board appoints people when there are no candidates, she says.
CASB sends a candidates' guide to prospective board members and helps facilitate candidate meeting, she says.
"We've already had several districts hold well-attended candidates meetings," Urschel says. "It looks as though there's going to be a much stronger interest in the upcoming election in November, but it's too early to tell, because petitions don't have to be in until August."
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| Reproduced with permission from the 2003 issue of School Board News. Copyright © 2003, National School Boards Association. Opinions expressed in this newspaper do not necessarily reflect positions of NSBA. This article may be printed out and photocopied for individual or educational use, provided this copyright notice appears on each copy. This article may not be otherwise transmitted or reproduced in print or electronic form without the consent of the Publisher. For more information, call (703) 838-6789. |