• Four legal notices must be published after the effective date of the law (April 29); practically this means one in each week before the vote.

  - Week of May 5th
  - Week of May 13th
  - Week of May 20th
  - Week of May 27th
  

• The legal notice must be in the same format as your prior legal notice with appropriate date changes.
  • May 5th - Nominating petitions for school board candidates due in the office of the district clerk by 5:00 p.m. - except small city school districts (30 days prior to election)

  • May 6th - Drawing by lot for board candidate positions on ballot - except small city school districts

  • May 13th - 20th - Budget statement must be completed (7 days prior to public hearing on the budget)

  • May 14th - Property tax report card must be submitted to the State Education Department

  • May 14- Nominating petitions for school board candidates in small city school districts due in the office of the district clerk by 5:00 p.m. (20 days prior to election)
  • May 15th - Drawing by lot for board candidate positions on ballot in small city school districts

  • May 20th - 27th - Board holds public hearing on budget (7-14 days before the budget vote)

  • May 20th - June 3rd - Copies of the budget must be made available to the public (14 days prior to budget vote)

  • May 28th - Deadline for mailing "Budget Notice" (after budget hearing, but no less than 6 days prior to budget vote)

  • June 3rd - Annual Meeting and Election
    

The State Education Department (SED) is of the opinion that the nominating process for candidates for the Board of Education must now be reopened until Monday, May 5th at 5:00 p.m. (May 14th for small city school districts). Since the legislation specifically states the June 3 date is for an "adjourned" meeting, we question this opinion. However, this is the position SED is taking and not following this opinion could result in challenges.

It is not clear what obligation school districts have to publicize the fact that the deadline for submitting nominating petitions has been extended. Also complicating this issue is the fact that a legal notice cannot be published prior to the new deadline (except in small city school districts). Therefore, the safest and most conservative approach would be to publicize the extension through the means normally used to publicize a special meeting. Examples include postings in buildings and notices on a district website, district marquee sign and/or district cable access channel, as applicable to the district.

Candidates that had submitted valid nominating petitions by the prior deadline do not need to resubmit petitions.

If you receive new, valid nominating petitions, you will need to redraw lots for board candidate positions on the ballot. If you do not receive new petitions and your slate of candidates remains the same, the statutory language appears to still require that lots for ballot positions be redrawn as it states that "[s]uch drawing shall be conducted by the clerk of the board of education and shall be held the day after the last possible date for candidates to file a petition." The impact of a failure to redraw lots in this instance is not clear, although the Commissioner has previously held that a failure to conduct the drawing on the date specified in the law was a technical error that did not affect the outcome of the election. See Appeal of Reese, 34 Educ. Dept. Rep. 187 (1994).

Absentee ballots will need to be reprinted with the appropriate dates and any substantive changes that may occur regarding propositions or the budget amount. If your district has already sent out absentee ballots and applications, you must disregard those documents and begin again with both applications and ballots.

The legislation does not require a new board meeting to reauthorize the budget proposition and other propositions to be submitted to the voters. However, the intent was clearly to allow boards the opportunity to present a different budget and any such action would require a meeting and new resolution.

Whether or not such changes will be feasible remains to be seen given the time constraints of the legislative process. It is our understanding that the Legislature cannot take action on a new budget bill prior to Friday, May 2, at the earliest. If passed, the Governor still has up to 10 days to either approve or veto the bill or items within the bill. If vetoed, the Legislature may then vote to override the Governor's veto but must separately vote on each line-item vetoed by the Governor. Any override requires a 2/3 vote in both houses.

This legal alert is meant to be an overview only. If you have other specific questions or need additional assistance, please contact Jim Spitz at (585) 419-8640, Laura Purcell at (585) 419-8730, Jaci Kelleher at (518) 561-4400 (x204) or the Harris Beach attorney with whom you usually work.

This legal alert provides brief analysis or comments on matters of education law. This legal alert does not purport to be a substitute for advice of counsel on specific matters.