By voting to move the traditional April school board elections to November, the governing body gave all current incumbents an extra eight months - two-thirds of a year - in office. It will take three cycles before winners in November 2015 get regular three-year terms starting Jan. 1, 2016.
The first set of board members affected consists of Brenda Gilbert, Lisa Logan Leach and Keisha Edwards. If re-elected in November, their terms will begin Jan. 1, 2013. In November 2013, Renata Hernandez, Wilma Gilbert and Susan Phifer (if this year she gets the unexpired term of Rasheed Abdul-Haqq) will have to run. Next, the trio of Jameelah Surgeon, Dorian Hurtt and Alex Edache will have to seek re-election in November 2014.
For some reason, this strikes me as a case of unintended consequences, although maybe the Grand S.L.A.M. team had it all figured out that terms would be attenuated.
The legislation that permitted the change from April to November also allows for reversion to the old schedule after four years. In that case, will the first round of incumbents then find their terms shortened to less than three years? Yikes.
The Elections Division of the County Clerk's office has posted a revised schedule of 2012 election dates that includes the new BOE filing date of June 5 and all other important dates.
The new schedule also lengthens the time from election to swearing-in, from a matter of a couple of weeks to nearly two months. This could give lame ducks and their allies an opportunity for mischief, except we all know that sort of thing never happens in Plainfield.
--Bernice
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