Deadline Today for School Board Fill-In Candidates

Weeks after the official school election, there’s a secondary race for a newly opened seat on the West Deptford school board.

After of James Crawford, who served a total of 17 years and left because of health reasons, at its reorganization meeting, the board will interview candidates and vote on a potential new member in the coming weeks.

Several candidates from this year’s election, including , who was the fourth-highest polling candidate, and , a fixture and frequent commenter at board meetings, both of whom were at the board’s reorganization meeting, have put in for consideration.

Hayden said he figures Guzzetti is the odds-on favorite for the open seat, since Guzzetti lost the election by about 30 votes, according to the unofficial results.

“I’m certainly not going to complain if [Guzzetti] gets it,” Hayden said, who vowed to keep attending every meeting to be “a thorn in the side” of the board.

Per the school board’s policy, they have to interview candidates for the open slot on the board, rather than simply going with the candidate with the next-highest vote total.

Had Crawford resigned well ahead of the election, a fourth slot could’ve been added to the ballot, but his letter wasn’t received by the board until just before spring break for the school district, Superintendent Kevin Kitchenman said at the reorganization meeting, and the election was in the middle of spring break week.

The deadline is 4 p.m. today for interested applicants to get a letter of interest and resume to Assistant Superintendent for Business/Board Secretary William Thompson at the district’s offices at the .