Laurel to retain regional voting system
The Laurel Highlands School District will retain its regional voting system after the board rejected a proposal to let district residents decide how they wish to vote in upcoming elections. The board was presented with a proposal to place the decision to vote at large or by region on the May primary ballot at the special meeting Tuesday night.
Laurel Highlands is the only school district in Fayette County to vote by region, which means people vote for one, two or three candidates, depending on the number of open seats, in the region in which they live. If district residents were to vote at large, they would be choosing who to elect from the entire candidate pool.
The district is divided into three regions – one comprising North Union, the other South Union and the third a combination of the two municipalities. The school board is composed of nine school directors elected from the three regions.
School board members Bill Elias, Jim Tobal, James Burns and Angelo Giachetti voted to place the question on the ballot. Board members Beverly Beal, Mary Conway, Edward S. George voted against the move. Board member Palmer Sabatine and board President Cathy Rice passed on the vote.
The measure needed five votes to pass.
Before the motion failed, a debate on doing away with regional voting was sparked, with both sides of the issue weighing in with their opinions.
Elias, who was elected to the board in 2005, said at-large voting would open the election process because people wishing to run would not be limited to running just in their region, but as a candidate in the district as a whole.
“It would give more people an opportunity to run for open seats since some regions had trouble getting candidates,” he said. “I feel when you are on a school board, you represent the entire district and voters should have the opportunity to vote for all nine instead of just three.
“What these five people did was stop the right of 15,583 (registered district voters) to vote on something,” said Elias, who in 2004, before his election to the board, began circulating a petition that garnered 1,093 signatures of people supporting voting at large. “They made a decision on what the voters should have decided.”
Lyn Andaloro, who is a board candidate in the district’s Region 2, presented the board with the proposal to ask the public to shift to at-large voting at the meeting Tuesday night.
Andaloro, along with fellow district residents and registered voters Larry Zebley and Judith Browell, petitioned the Fayette County Court of Common Pleas in July to issue an order for school board members to be elected at large.
The lawsuit states that the petitioners are aware of no substantial differences that exist between North Union and South Union townships that justify electing directors from three regions.
“The young people now say they are from the Laurel Highlands School District, not from North or South Union. I think we now are able to do away with these regions and vote for all nine members,” Andaloro said. “A referendum question would let the voting public decide, not a judge or the school board.”
District resident Pat Livingston urged the board to keep the current voting method.
“If someone has a problem, they know one of these individuals,” said Livingston, referring to board members. “I think we have a good board whose doing a great job because of the way we are voting now. I say, ‘If it’s not broke, don’t fix it’.”
George voiced his support of voting by region.
“Regional voting creates community. Parents and students know who to contact and who is their local representative,” said George, noting he has people stop by his house in the summer to discuss board issues. “I will vote ‘no’ to put it on a referendum and actively lobby against it.”
He added that the district being divided into three regions provides for equal representation of the voting public, noting that if North Union or South Union were to receive all the candidates, which would be possible under at-large voting, that representation shifts.
“This way, everyone gets equal representation and you keep the unique neighborhood feel of it,” said George. “This board is balanced and we’re doing what is fair. We are making good decisions to get quality kids into the world.”
District solicitor Gary Frankhouser said the district has not filed a response to the lawsuit because it was trying to settle the issue before it goes to court.
Frankhouser said because the board rejected the referendum question, he is unsure of where the issue now stands. No hearing has been scheduled in the case.
Other school districts across the county have either abandoned by choice or by order of the courts its regional voting systems. The issue has been ongoing in the Laurel Highlands School District since 2004.