Two longtime members recently resigned
The Beacon school board will leave two vacancies open, opting to stay at seven members until the election in May.
In a straw poll, board members unanimously chose to wait, rather than appoint members to replace Anthony White and Kristan Flynn, who resigned last month.
The board had four options: leave the seats open until the election in May; make appointments to fill the seats until the election; ask Jodi DeLucia, the superintendent of the Dutchess Board of Cooperative Educational Services (BOCES), to make appointments until the election; or call a special election.
However, only two options - leaving the seats open or appointing members - seemed practical, since a special election would cost the district at least $10,000, and DeLucia and other BOCES administrators may not know the Beacon community well enough to make informed choices.
The board has taken both paths in recent years. Flynn was appointed in 2016 to fill a vacancy, while the seat held by John Galloway Jr., who was appointed in 2020, was left open after his 2023 resignation.
"There are times when appointments feel very necessary," President Flora Stadler said during the board's Monday (Sept. 8) meeting. But "there's a big difference between appointments to the board and actually running, having to go out and collect signatures and speak to 100 people in your community."
She asked her six colleagues to weigh the need for a full, nine-member board versus the value of someone choosing to run for a seat.
While everyone said they favored leaving the seats open, Chris Lewine asked whether the board should use the opportunity to revisit another question that has come up in recent years: Should it shrink?
According to the New York State School Boards Association, board membership ranges from three to 13 people in public school districts statewide, with seven members the most common size. If the Beacon board were to recommend shrinking, district voters would have to approve a proposition making the change during a May budget vote. The smaller board size would go into effect the following year.
The board would need to notify district officials of its intention by March of a given year to get a proposition on the ballot two months later, Superintendent Matt Landahl said.
Vice President Meredith Heuer said Monday that she is neutral after having previously advocated a smaller board. Her mind changed "because our committees have become so much more robust and there is a lot of work to do," she said.
Stadler noted that keeping membership at nine "allows for a broader range of ideas and experiences" among the group. She added that, in the state's eyes, Beacon still has a nine-member board, so a five-person quorum will be required for future meetings.
The next several months will give the board a chance to test-run having seven members, Lewine said.
