Serving on the Board

Are you seeking a position that offers the opportunity to advance public education, establishes you as a leader in your community, and provides immense personal satisfaction?

Consider serving on the Morristown Central School Board!

Commitment to Public Education

A school board member takes on one of the most important citizen responsibilities: overseeing the education of the community’s youth. In these challenging times for public education, school boards are seeking community members who find excitement and satisfaction in confronting tough challenges and working collegially to rise above them and help students in the community succeed.

The Board of Education oversees and manages the community’s school system. It ensures the school is flexible and responsive to the needs of the community.  School boards are comprised of volunteers within the community, who dedicate their time to better public education.

The Morristown Central School District Board of Education has seven members, each serving three-year terms.  During the 2024 elections, there will be three seats at large on the ballot due to the following Board Members’ terms expiring on June 30, 2024:  Mark Blanchard, Jeffrey LaJoy, and Tammy Ritchie

Responsibilities of a Board Member
With schoolchildren always their ultimate focus, school board members act officially at the board table, working with other board members to serve students, and accomplish the following:

• Create a shared vision for the future of education
• Set the direction of the school district to achieve the highest student performance
• Provide rigorous accountability for student-achievement results
• Develop a budget and present it to the community, aligning district resources to improve achievement
• Support a healthy school district culture for work and learning
• Create strategic partnerships with the community stakeholders
• Build the district’s progress through continuous improvement
• Adopt and maintain current policies
• Hire and evaluate the superintendent
• Ratify collective bargaining agreements
• Maintain strong ethical standards

Characteristics of a Board Member
Below are attributes that all effective board members should possess:

• Effective Communicator: Can describe what they want and describe what others want; a good listener
• Consensus Builder: Capable of working toward decisions that all can support and willing to compromise to achieve goals
• Community Participant: Enjoys meeting a variety of people, can identify the community’s key communicators, and reaches out to the community
• Decision Maker: Is comfortable making decisions and can support group decision-making
• Information Processor: Can organize priorities and schedules to handle large amounts of verbal and written information
• Leader: Willing to take risks, be supportive of board colleagues, district staff and community
• Team Player: Helps promote the board’s vision and goals

Eligibility Requirements
Generally, school board candidates must be a U.S. citizen, at least 18 years old, qualified voters in the school district, and able to read and write. They must be residents of the district continuously for one year before the election. At the time when the board member takes office, they cannot be employed by the board on which they serve or live in the same household with a family member who is also a member of the same school board.

Nominating Petitions
Candidates must submit a nominating petition to the District Clerk. Petitions are available with the District Clerk and must be signed by at least 25 qualified district voters. Petitions must be filed with the District Clerk by no later than April 22, 2024 at 5:00 p.m. Once the petition is filed, the next step is to gather support from your local community members.