Concerned Citizens of Exeter Township

What's on your mind? 

Have you seen anything that makes life in Exeter and St. Lawrence Great? 

Do you know of any interesting upcoming events? 

What concerns do you have about life in our community?

Use this BLOG to communicate to all of the Citizens of our community! 

CCoET Executive Committee

As you may have noticed, there have been appointments made by a couple of Berks County School Boards in the last few weeks.  First, the Exeter Township School Board appointed a 28-Year School Board Veteran, who had just been voted out of office, to fill a position that was vacated a week after the general election.  Second, there was another such appointment made of a voter-rejected director in the Wilson School District.  While these appointments were made legally and probably with the best of intentions by the two boards, these actions have driven a wedge of distrust between voters and their school boards.  In both cases, voters denied the re-election of the appointed individuals and many feel that the boards circumvented the will of the people by appointing two people who were removed from office by a majority of district voters.

I will not find fault with the boards for the decisions that they made because they believed they were acting in the best interests of the people they serve nor will I say that the appointees do not have the necessary skills and knowledge to fulfill the requirements of the job.  However, I will say that the laws regarding the filling of vacancies on school boards are less than adequate in providing direction and that they need to be revised to prevent future similar occurrences and to standardize the process by which the public is informed of vacancies and how they are filled. 

The following are suggested changes to the process that CCoET has sent to state officials and we are encouraging all Concerned Citizens living in both Exeter and St. Lawrence to contact their state representatives to support these changes.

Suggested changes to the process for filling vacant Director of School Board positions in the following manner. 

•  A School Director who has left office as a result of losing his/her bid for election SHALL  NOT be eligible for appointment to the associated School Board for a period of not less than 6 months from the date of the election at which he/she was not re-elected.
• Any position that has become vacant within two months of a scheduled election SHALL be subject to election at the time of the next Primary Election or General Election, whichever comes first for the purpose of being elected to serve the remaining time that the position has until regularly scheduled election. 
• The following standard process SHALL be followed for the filling of any vacancy on a School Board:
  • The vacancy SHALL be advertised along with the request for residents to file letters of interest/applications for filling the position
  • There SHALL be a period of no less than one week from the date that the advertisement is placed in local newspapers and on the applicable School District Website (if applicable), prior to a public meeting for the purpose of interviewing interested candidates. 
  • Following the interviews of the interested candidates, there SHALL be a public meeting at which comments from the public SHALL be accepted and at which a decision may be made on the person who will fill the vacancy. 
  • The decision on filling the vacancy should be made within 30 days, and SHALL be made at a meeting that is open to the public.