LEWISTON, N.Y. (WKBW) — The Lewiston-Porter Central School District finds itself in a rare predicament ahead of next week’s school board election: two open board seats, but nobody running to fill them.
"It’s not that prevalent, but it does happen from time to time," Chief Communications & Marketing Officer for the New York State School Boards Association David Albert said. "This year, maybe just a ballpark estimate, there might just be about a dozen school districts or so where there are no candidates running for open seats, out of 700 [districts]."
After a board member’s resignation and the board president choosing not to run again, Lew-Port finds itself in a position where fewer than 2% of schools this year have no candidates to fill the openings.
A situation that Superintendent Paul Casseri tells me he’s never seen in his 20+ years at the district.
"We’ve never had a scenario where there were open seats, and people didn’t want to run," Casseri said.
Casseri tells me the winner of the election will be the two write-in candidates with the most votes.
WATCH: 'Never had this scenario': No candidates running for open Lew-Port School Board seats
That means that anybody can be one of the next school board members, as long as they live in the district and enough of their neighbors write down their name.
Q: "Does it make you wary at all about the kind of person who could win?"
Casseri: “I’m never wary, you know… There’s good people who live in this community, and we will end up with good candidates, I’m sure.”
If you’re thinking this is a bad sign for the district, Albert tells me it could mean quite the opposite.
"It’s not that prevalent, but it does happen from time to time," Albert said. "Sometimes when you have a lot of candidates, it’s a sign there may be something of concern happening. No candidates, in an odd kind of way, maybe it suggests people aren’t concerned with the way the district is going. Of course, we still need good board members, and I’m sure we will get them."
"Whoever decides to run, we’d love to have them come on board, and we’d appreciate their perspective," Casseri said.
Election day is Tuesday, from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. Voters will also be casting ballots on a new budget, which Casseri tells me will include a 1.9% tax increase.
