By Philip Sean Curran, Staff Writer
The Princeton Board of Education will not allow the public to be present when school officials later this month interview candidates to fill a vacancy on the school board.
This week, the district released a public notice saying the board would have a closed session meeting May 22 starting at 6:30 p.m. in the administration building on Valley Road. No formal action will be taken at the meeting, rescheduled from May 23, the notice read.
The board could have had the session open to the public when it screens candidates interested in replacing Dorothy Bedford, who is giving up her seat because she is moving to Pennsylvania. Her resignation takes effect May 31.
School Board President Timothy Quinn said Thursday that it was a “board decision” to interview candidates in closed session, treating it as a personnel matter. He said four people have submitted letters of interest in the position ahead of the May 15 deadline to do so. He said he felt it “premature” to disclose their names before that date passes.
Mike Yaple, a spokesman for the New Jersey School Boards Association, said Thursday that interviews of candidates and the subsequent board discussion on the candidates’ merits may be done in closed session. The vote appointing someone, however, must be done in public, he said. All of those things are based on prior court decisions, Mr. Yaple added.
Mr. Quinn said he expects that the board would take that vote at its May 28 meeting to appoint Ms. Bedford’s successor.
The replacement would finish her term, due to expire in early January, and would have the option to run for the seat in the fall. Princeton, like many other districts around the state, moved its school board election from April to November. Three seats on the board are up this year, including Ms. Bedford’s.
Her replacement will have to wait until June 11 to be sworn in, according to the school district Thursday.
Qualifications to serve on a school board are minimal. Among the criteria, candidates must be able to read and write, a resident of Princeton for at least a year and a registered voter. Anyone interested in filling Ms. Bedford’s seat has to submit a letter to the school business administrator and board secretary Stephanie Kennedy by the close of business May 15.
