GASD Board Seats Alex Hewitt After Six Ballots and Compromise

The Gettysburg Area School District (GASD) School Board took over an hour to interview and discuss the four candidates who had applied for the empty two-year school board position, before electing Alex Hewitt after six rounds of voting.

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Hewitt

The other three candidates were Alice Broadway, Sylvan Hershey, and Michelle Smyers.

During the interview process, each of the candidates made a short presentation and then answered one question from each of the seven board members who were present. Board member Carrie Soliday was absent because she was “traveling from the other side of the state” and therefore excused, according to board president Kenneth Hassinger.

After the vote Hewitt was sworn in and joined the board for the remainder of the meeting.

The order of interviews was determined randomly and the board members were asked to make their decisions based on only the content of the interview itself.

After the presentations and questions each of the four candidates was nominated by at least one member of the board, leading to an initial vote among the four candidates.

On the first round board member Kathleen Pratt voted for Broadway, AmyBeth Hodges and Michael Dickerson voted for Hewitt; Alan Moyer and Hassinger voted for Hershey, and Timon Linn and Tim Seigman voted for Smyers.

Because Broadway received one vote while each of the other candidates received two, there was a second round of voting among Hewitt, Hershey and Smyers in which Pratt’s vote went to Hershey.

Solicitor Robert McQuaide reminded the board a majority vote was required. Because there were eight members of the board, “there must be five affirmative votes,” he said.

McQuaide said there was no explicit procedure of how to proceed with the voting although an ad hoc procedure was possible. “You just keep voting,” he said.

The board then voted two more times with the same results as the second vote.

Hassinger then asked the board members to discuss the candidates and “explain why your candidate is most fitting for the board seat.” The board members agreed on the need to reach consensus, that they were engaged in a very difficult process, and that all four members were highly qualified. All of the candidates were praised for their various strong qualities.

In a fifth round of voting Seigman, Hassinger, Hodges, and Dickerson voted for Hewitt with Linn and Pratt voting for Hershey.

Hewitt received the required five votes on the final round with votes from Seigman, Hassinger, Hodges, Dickerson, and Linn.

The board then had a short meeting with Mr. Hewitt in attendance. The meeting involved informational discussions and routine approvals.

GASD Superintendent Jason Perrin thanked the new members of the board with certificates of appreciation for their dedication.

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Charles (Chuck) Stangor is Gettysburg Connection's Owner, Publisher, and Editor in Chief. I would like to hear from you. Please contact me at cstangor@gettysburgconnection.org.