EDISON- Edison Board of Education member Joseph Shannon said that he will not be seeking another term in this year’s election. The other two incumbents, William Van Pelt and Ray Koperwhats, will still run to defend their seats, however.
Shannon said that there are many reasons why he has decided not to run for the school board again. Prime among them, he said, was a simple consideration of time. He feels that between his personal life and his job at the Edison Police Department, where he is a lieutenant, he is not able to give the position the time it deserves.
“The Board of Education requires, to do it right, you have to do more than those Monday and Thursday meetings. You have obligations with the PTAs, which I had a difficult time fulfilling,” said Shannon.
A nother reason Shannon decided not
to run again is a potential conflict of interest due to a sister who works as a lunch aide in the district. He said he had not been aware that it could present a conflict, but now that the possibility has been raised, he said he would be unable to take part in votes on certain issues, which he believes would not be fair to the voters.
“I didn’t realize at the time [that] it was a conflict, and personally I think that’s an issue, too. I didn’t think it would be fair, [because] if I ran again and got in, I wouldn’t be able to vote on some of the more important issues in the district,” said Shannon.
According to Van Pelt, Shannon’s seat in the April 15 school board election is open to any eligible resident. He said that he and Koperwhats are still deciding on what form their own campaigns will take, such as whether they will run as a slate or whether they will run individually.
“Right now we haven’t decided. We’re looking at the possibility of running with another person or we may go individually. We haven’t decided at this point,” said Van Pelt.