Schools

Candidates for B-W Board Vacancy Being Kept a Secret

There will be no interview process, and the candidates are known only to the board members.

Baldwin-Whitehall School Board members know whom the candidates are to fill a vacant board seat, but they aren’t allowed to talk about them—yet.

The board announced the resignation of on Jan. 3, and since then, the district has entertained applications to fill the remainder of DiNardo’s term on the board. As for whom filled out applications is known to every board member, but the district will not release those names. And the board will not interview candidates as it did the last time that there was a vacancy.

Going through an interview process is how in February 2011. He and on Dec. 7.

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At Wednesday night’s school board meeting, President John B. Schmotzer silenced fellow board member Tracy Macek during board member comments time when Macek began to discuss whom she feels would be appropriate to fill the vacant seat.

“It seems like it’s a sensitive subject about the appointment of the seat,” Macek said, “but I did want to make a comment that I think that we need to consider that Mr. DiNardo served that seat for two weeks and one day. And so, when we’re making a decision, maybe we should consider the next-highest vote-getter.”

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At that point, Schmotzer cut Macek off.

“I’m not going to have a discussion about that this evening,” he said. “I would appreciate holding off the comments until next week.”

Macek complied.

DiNardo ran unopposed for the only two-year seat available in November’s election, but the person with the highest number of votes in November who was not elected for one of the five four-year seats available was Marion M. Shannon, a running mate of Macek’s.

Macek’s comments came on the heels of a conversation that Schmotzer had with fellow board member Nancy Lee Crowder over the process of appointing a new board member to fill DiNardo’s seat.

Until that point of the meeting, the board had not revealed to the public that it would be appointing a new board member at the next week’s meeting—Wednesday, Jan. 18—or that any of the board members were aware of whom applied for DiNardo’s seat.

Due to Crowder’s conversation with Schmotzer, the public did learn that Schmotzer had sent each board member an email telling them that they would receive the names to consider for nomination on Jan. 18 and that the board would not be interviewing candidates.

“We’re not going to interview anyone?” Crowder asked.

“We don’t have to interview,” Schmotzer said, pointing out that each board member has résumés from applicants to review before deciding to nominate one of those applicants on Jan. 18.

Crowder said that she was confused as to why Schmotzer is directing the board to nominate candidates without interviews when the district has used a past guideline that calls for interviewing candidates.

Schmotzer acknowledged that past guideline but said, “Procedures and guidelines are used at the discretion of the board to fill a vacancy, and I’ve set those guidelines.”

Crowder suggested that—“since we have so many appointed seats”—the board should update its guidelines to always call for interviews of candidates.

As board President, Schmotzer has the right to set those guidelines and procedures, which are different than strict district policies, and he said that not interviewing candidates was his preference for the Jan. 18 appointment.

“The chair (Schmotzer) can review guidelines and procedures and determine which best fits the situation,” Schmotzer said.

District solicitor Ed Lawrence confirmed that Schmotzer has the right to operate in such a way.

In an email exchange on Thursday, B-W School District Superintendent Dr. Lawrence C. Korchnak confirmed that neither Schmotzer nor any other board member could review candidates with fellow board members in private. A review of candidates must be done in public.

In years past, the board has gone so far as to not open some seats up for public application. When former board member John Palmiere was appointed in late 2010 following the resignation of Nancy Sciulli DiNardo (Sam’s wife), there was no public application process.

Also, when former board member Martin Michael Schmotzer (John’s brother) was appointed to the board in November 2007, that came without a public application process because Martin Schmotzer had earned the most votes out of all non-elected board candidates in that time’s most recent local election.

Jan. 11 was the final day for residents of , and to apply for Sam DiNardo’s vacated seat.

On Jan. 18, Schmotzer will entertain motions from fellow board members to appoint a new board member from the list of applicants. The board will vote on applicants in the order in which they are received.

Schmotzer will decide which board member made the first motion—should multiple members attempt to speak at the same time—and should that first motion result in an appointment, all other motions would not be voted on.

How do you feel about this process? Tell us in the comments section below.

And check back with the Baldwin-Whitehall Patch later on Thursday for more odds and ends from Wednesday night’s school board meeting.

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