Hulse’s school board seat likely to remain vacant until May election

The seat vacated by board member Lori Hulse, who resigned late last month following her election as Riverhead town justice, may remain vacant until the next school district election.

Last night, the remaining board members voted unanimously to accept Hulse’s resignation and indicated in a discussion they are not inclined to fill the vacant seat by appointment, which they have the power to do. The term of the appointment would only be until the next regular election in May, at which point someone would be elected to fill the balance of Hulse’s term, which expires June 30, 2017. (Watch full meeting video, below.)

Calverton resident Sal Mastropaolo asked if the board would opt to fill the vacancy by appointing the candidate who placed third in last May’s five-way race for two seats on the board. That candidate was Laurie Downs, who placed third with 1,064 votes in the last election, 132 votes behind Ann Cotten-Degrasse, who finished second.

Board members did not address this question directly, but discussed their options during the meeting.

“I just want to make sure we’re doing things the correct way,” said Greg Meyer, who noted that the board was in a similar situation when school board member Angela DeVito stepped down June 30 2011. Her term expired the following year, June 30, 2012. Approximately one month after her resignation, the board appointed a former board member, William Hsiang to fill the vacancy. He served until Susan Koukounas was elected to a three-year term in May 2012. Koukounas took the oath of office and was sworn in on election night to replace the appointed member immediately, as per state law.

While the board reached no official decision last night, president Koukounas told members the board has three options: it could opt to fill the seat by appointment; set a special election to fill the seat; or wait until the next regular election to fill the seat.

“In my eye, it’s such a short time span because if we do want to fill the seat as a board we’d have to put a notice out, then interview, then vote  — and it’s already close to the end of January,” Koukounas said, adding that she felt that it would make sense to leave the seat vacant for the few months until the elections in May. Amelia Lantz added her support to the idea, noting that she felt it is better leaving it to a public vote.

Meyer said he is not opposed to leaving the seat vacant, but asked that the board contact its attorney to verify that they are allowed to do so and are doing the correct thing by law.

Greg Meyer expressed his thanks to Hulse for her years of service to the district.

In other action, the board:

• approved a memorandum of agreement with the Riverhead Central Faculty Association concerning a retirement incentive that board members said would help keep the budget under the tax cap in 2016-2017. Details of the agreement were not immediately made available;
• approved contract change orders totaling $92,025 for construction and renovation work at the high school, middle school, Pulaski Street school and Roanoke.