Process for Making an
Appointment for a Board Vacancy
Note: the board
should follow its own policy on filling vacancies. 18A contains no guidance beyond the legal
requirement that the vacancy be filled within 65 days. Part of the process listed below is based on
a Commissioner’s decision in a suit brought by Gannett News Services on the
necessity to hold as much of the process as practicable in open session and on
a recent suit from Sparta (Sussex County) that questions whether the vote needs
to be a majority of the fully constituted board. Your attorney is best suited
to give you further advice on this process.
1.
Develop questions that elicit pertinent
information about the individuals’ skills, understanding and enthusiasm.
2.
Ask each candidate the same questions and use a
consistent rating form to evaluate the answers.
3.
Interviews are held in public. The board must
advertise and open the meeting in line with the OPMA. You can schedule a specific time for each
candidate, but there is nothing that prevents the other candidates from
attending the meeting.
4.
After the interviews are finished, the board can
go into executive (closed) session to deliberate.
5.
Upon returning to open session, the president
calls for nominations from the group.
While there is no legal guideline in this regard, it would be better to
proceed with the nomination of one individual rather than multiple nominations
at the same time.
6.
Ask your attorney about an unpublished case from
Sparta (Sussex County)
regarding the question of whether a candidate can only be appointed by a
majority of the fully constituted board – in most cases that means that the
successful candidate will have to receive FIVE votes to be appointed.
7.
Should any individual fail to receive the
majority vote, the board can start the process over, if they are within the
65-day period given for this vacancy. If
they are beyond the 65 days, then the appointment automatically reverts to the
county superintendent of schools.
8.
The vacancy is filled only until the next
election; that seat then becomes open for the remainder of the original length
of the term.
Link to document below:
