Schools
Five Candidates Seek Two School Board Seats
In another School Board opening, 11 residents apply to fill Rogers vacant seat until January.
Five Nutley residents filed petitions to run for two Board of Education seats up in November’s election.
In a second school board development, school board members are reviewing 11 applications from those seeking to fill Steven Rogers' unexpired school board seat that runs through January.
Rogers resigned after being elected to the Nutley Board of Commissioners May 8. The School Board will begin reviewing the 11 applicants for that temporary post at the June 11 public Board of Education meeting.
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In the November election, challengers Kevin Georgetti, Ryan Kline and Alan Thomas intend to run against the two incumbents, Board Vice President Thomas Sposato and trustee Debbie Russo. The deadline for filing for the November election was Tuesday.
Georgetti is a lawyer who serves as counsel for a bank. He is running a second time and said he won't raise money from residents. He has an 11-year-old son entering sixth grade.
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"I want to make sure my son, and all Nutley children continue to get the best education possible," Georgetti said in an interview.
Kline is a school psychologist and father. He said on his Facebook page, “I handed in my petition for the Nov. 6th Nutley BOE election. I am looking forward to the upcoming five months of campaigning!"
Thomas regularly attends Board meetings. He said on his Facebook page, “Well, it is official. Today (June 5), I filed my petition to run for the Nutley Board of Education.”
Both Russo and Sposato's terms end this year, but in February, the School Board decided 5-to-4 to move school elections from April to November.
As for Rogers' unexpired seat, the board solicited applications. The identity of the 11 is being withheld until the process is narrowed down, officials said.
Board President James Kuchta said previously that trustees have 65 days to fill the seat vacated by Rogers, and the School Board would take longer to fill the vacant slot if there were a lot of applicants.
If the Board decides that 11 names are too many, an ad-hoc committee will narrow the field, but the process will take longer, according to Kuchta.
The Board decided against having the state School Boards Association pick a replacement, and chose instead to select a replacement as a group.
So the Board could take until the end of July, requiring a waiver from the state to go beyond the 65-day limit, Kuchta said previously.
