Guilderland School Board elections
Backed by endorsements and finances, teams formed



GUILDERLAND — Three Guilderland School Board candidates posted clusters of red and white campaign signs across town last week; this week, green and white signs are going up for a pair of candidates.

Incumbent Barbara Fraterrigo and first-time candidates Carolyn Kelly and John Fraher — an auditor and an accountant — are running together and posting the red signs.

Incumbent Colleen O’Connell and Gloria Towle-Hilt, a retiring teacher making her first run for the school board, are posting the green signs together.

The top three vote-getters in the May 15 election will win seats on the nine-member school board.

In one of the more heated races in the last decade, campaign finances have become an issue for the first time. Election signs make up the bulk of the spending.

Endorsements are also playing a role. O’Connell and Towle-Hilt are being supported by the teachers’ union, which for the first time this year offered $500 to each of the candidates it supports.
Fraterrigo, Fraher, and Kelly have been endorsed by Guilderland Parents Advocate, a group that founder Melissa Mirabile says has about 300 members. While the three have accepted the endorsement they have distanced themselves from what they term "negative" campaigning.

The Enterprise has received 20 letters in the last two weeks dealing with the school-board elections. Five letter-writers have backed O’Connell and Towle-Hilt as a team; Towle-Hilt also got three individual endorsements and O’Connell, two. Six have endorsed Fraher, Fraterrigo, and Kelly as a group.

Most of the letter-writers criticizing Towle-Hilt have said, because she will be a retired teacher, she would have a conflict of interest serving on the school board; a decision from the state education commissioner says otherwise.

Running in groups

School-board elections don’t involve political parties, but, in the past in Guilderland, two or three candidates have often run together, sometimes on slates with specific agendas or platforms.
While O’Connell and Towle-Hilt said from the start, just after candidates’ petitions were due on April 16, that they shared "a common philosophy" and were coordinating their campaigns, Kelly and Fraher, when initially asked by The Enterprise if they were running as part of a group, both said they were running independently.

Fraterrigo, who was out of the country for the past two weeks and could not be reached for comment earlier, told The Enterprise this week about how the group got together. "I’ve known Carolyn for years and encouraged her for years to run," said Fraterrigo of Kelly.
She said Kelly had hesitated to run this year because Fraterrigo was up for re-election. "I told her, ‘If you replace me, I’ll have no sleepless nights,’" said Fraterrigo, lauding Kelly’s qualifications.
"I didn’t know John," she said of Fraher. "He asked to meet with me. He said he’d followed me on the board...We talked over issues and found we were simpatico."
Fraterrigo said the trio gelled because of a "similar philosophy." "Carolyn, John, and myself are more the questioning type and willing to weigh and measure," said Fraterrigo.

Fraher told The Enterprise yesterday, when asked about his earlier response of running independently, "Things changed after you and I spoke"I met with Carolyn Kelly and Barbara and we found we were on the same page with most of the issues." He said this was "a couple of weeks ago."
Kelly said on Tuesday, "We saw what Colleen and Ms. Towle-Hilt were doing" and liked the idea.
She went on, "It’s not that we’re running together. We realized we think the same way."

Finances
"What can we expect from Colleen O’Connell when she has taken $500 in monetary support from the Guilderland Teachers’ Association"" asks Matt Nelligan, a Guilderland High School teacher and town resident, in a letter to the Enterprise editor this week.

As it turns out, O’Connell has accepted the support of the teachers’ union but not the money.
"I don’t need the money. I’m just not comfortable with it," O’Connell told The Enterprise on Tuesday.

Towle-Hilt has accepted both the endorsement and the funds from the GTA.
"It means they’re supporting me as an individual who thinks for herself," Towle-Hilt said. "No one has asked me how I stand on issues either way....I have a reputation for making the best possible choices for children."

O’Connell and Towle-Hilt each estimated they would be spending a little over $500 on their campaigns. Their signs each cost about $5, Towle-Hilt said, and each candidate said she had ordered 100. Each has also had palm cards with her picture printed to hand out to voters.
Similarly, Fraher said that he, like his running mates, had 100 signs made at $4 each, which he paid for "out of his own pocket."
"I have not incurred a nickle more," he said of expenses. He produced an election flyer on his own computer, he said.
Fraterrigo, too, said she had 100 signs made at $4 each. Beyond that, she said, her costs were "nothing substantial." She also made up a flyer which she printed off her own printer.
This is her fourth run for the board and Fraterrigo said there was increased pressure for publicity. "I never used signs before," she said. "I never spent anything."
"The bar seems to have been raised," said O’Connell of spending on campaign signs and brochures. "Because so many people are doing it, you feel you need to also."

State Education Law requires that candidates file forms with the district clerk on their campaign expenses. There is one form for those who spend under $500 and another for those who spend over that amount. Clerk Linda Livingston said on Tuesday that she had gotten only one form so far: Library trustee candidate Douglas Morrissey has spent less than $500 in his uncontested run.

The deadline for filing the forms, said Livingston, is May 5; a second form is due 20 days after the May 15 election.
Neil Sanders, the district’s assistant superintendent for business, said, "Typically, we get back a statement that they’ve spent less than $500." Spending more than that is "fairly rare," he said.

According to records reviewed by Sanders, in last year’s election, five candidates ran and just one reported spending over $500; Hy Dubowsky reported spending about $515.

The year before that, six candidates ran and, again, just one reported spending over $500; Peter Golden reported spending about $900.

Conflict of interest"

Over the years, several retired teachers have served on the Guilderland School Board, most recently Grace Serviss, a retired Guilderland social studies teacher.

In 1993, Thomas Sobol, then the state’s education commissioner, issued an opinion that indicates a retired teacher can serve on a school board.

The Washingtonville Central School District sought to remove Harriet Beers from the school board. She had retired as a teacher at Washingtonville in 1990 and was elected to the school board in 1991.

The school district argued that Beers received medical insurance benefits under a collective bargaining agreement and, since Beers must approve collective bargaining agreements with the teachers’ union, she should be barred from the school board under conflict-of-interest provisions of Education Law and General Municipal Law.
Education Law states, "No employee of a board of education may be a member of such board." Sobol ruled that, since Beers was no longer employed by the board, this did not apply to her.
General Municipal Law prohibits a municipal officer or employee from having an interest in a municipal contract where he or she has the power or duty to negotiate, prepare, authorize, or approve the contract. But the law also sets forth exceptions, specifically exempting from coverage "contract[s] with a membership corporation or other voluntary non-profit corporation or association."

Since the teachers’ union is a voluntary, non-profit association, Sobol found, Beers had no conflict of interest in being covered by a health-insurance plan paid by the district as part of a collective bargaining agreement with a non-profit union.

Union support

Chris Claus said that, in the five years he has been president of the Guilderland Teachers’ Association, the representatives’ council, an elected body that meets monthly, had decided to support candidates three times, counting this year.

New candidates for the school board — three this year — are sent surveys, Claus said; only Towle-Hilt returned one. Incumbents are known by their records.

This year, the council decided to offer support to Towle-Hilt and O’Connell, Claus said.
For the first time, the support also came with an offer of $500, he said. "We have money that is restricted in our budget from the political action arm of the New York State United Teachers," said Claus. "It can only be used for political activities. We thought we should use it."
Claus prefers the word "support" to describe the union’s backing of candidates rather than "endorse," which he said has political connotations.
"‘Support’ is a positive thing, offered as a gesture of positive feeling," said Claus. "Criticism or trash talk has absolutely no place in a school-board election." The candidates, he said, "are trying to perform a community service." He went on, "I would not offer criticism of the people we decided not to support."
Claus said there is always debate and discussion as to whether the GTA should support school-board candidates, and he said he does not believe Nelligan’s views "represent the majority of the teachers."

Claus spoke out on behalf of the teachers at a February school-board meeting.
After several parents complained to the school board that the district had failed to teach their children to read and some school board members demanded answers, Claus told the board that response "sent a chilling message of distrust and has provoked fear in teachers and staff." Claus, who is a reading teacher, said the board seemed willing to substitute its judgment of an academic program for that of its professional staff.
This week, Claus said, "Among teachers, there is a concern that is a trend they are seeing...If you fear your boss or your CEO or board of directors doesn’t think you’re doing a good job, it affects the way you feel about your work.
O’Connell said she sees the GTA support as "an acknowledgment that, in the past three years, I’ve worked as a partner with the Guilderland staff."
She went on, "I view school board members and the community and staff as partners. I don’t ever want to see that turned into an adversarial relationship as it is in so many school districts."
O’Connell, a lawyer, also said, "I’m my own woman...There’s no quid pro quo here," meaning no exchange. She said she would not have accepted the endorsement if something were expected of her in return.

Towle-Hilt said that O’Connell had not voted one way in her term on the board, but weighed each issue individually.
"Even within the teachers’ union, teachers have different ideas about topics," said Towle-Hilt. "We are all thinking human beings."
She went on about the GTA members, "They haven’t given me any checklist. Nobody’s ever interviewed me, except for you," she told The Enterprise. With its support, said Towle-Hilt, "The GTA is saying, ‘You’re open-minded, flexible, and willing to listen.’"
She went on about herself and O’Connell, "We definitely value the public education system. We know there’s a balance here between what we want and what we can do...We don’t have a preconceived agenda. Colleen and I have never had a conversation about specific issues."

GTA endorsement

Melissa Mirabile, the founder of Guilderland Parents Advocate, wrote a letter to the Enterprise editor this week endorsing Fraterrigo, Fraher, and Kelly.

The GPA has endorsed candidates since 2004. GPA-endorsed candidates who have been elected include: Fraterrigo, Peter Golden, Denise Eisele, and Hy Dubowsky.

The group was formed by parents who were frustrated with their children’s struggles to read. The group, three years ago, pushed for changes in the reading curriculum and for a board advisory committee on reading. The school board at the time held firm in backing staff on the current curriculum and only Fraterrigo voted for establishing an advisory committee.

The GPA has since expanded its focus, as described by Mirabile at the start of her letter this week.

In past letters to the editor announcing GPA endorsements, Mirabile has lauded the selected candidates. She did so this year, too, but she also criticized the candidates who were not selected. A number of the letters to the editor endorsing Fraterrigo, Fraher, and Kelly also criticized O’Connell and Towle-Hilt.
"We’re not running a negative campaign," Kelly told The Enterprise on Tuesday evening, saying she also spoke for her running mates. Of her opponents, she said, "The other two candidates are wonderful people who are very generous with their time. We don’t want to denigrate anyone. We want a civilized campaign as they have been in other years. We hope people will look at our qualifications and vote based on that."

Kelly said that she, Fraher, and Fraterrigo had called each other after reading a copy of the GPA endorsement letter.

On Tuesday night, Fraterrigo echoed Kelly’s thoughts that the group was opposed to negative campaigning.
She said of O’Connell, "Both Colleen and I have a record people can judge us on...I don’t see how you can say anything negative about Gloria. She doesn’t have a record; she’s a nice person....I hope people will judge Carolyn, John, and Gloria on their statements and plans for the future."
Fraterrigo concluded of the GPA, "We certainly welcome their endorsement."
On Wednesday, Fraher said, "We’re grateful that the GPA group endorsed us. We would like to keep a positive campaign and get elected on our own merits."

Towle-Hilt told The Enterprise Tuesday that she had seen a GPA e-mail that said, with the endorsed candidates being elected, "They would have the votes they need to do certain things." Towle-Hilt said, "That scares me — taking control of the board."
She went on, "The greatest thing about democracy is we get people together who disagree and work out a solution."

Mirabile told The Enterprise yesterday that she had sent an e-mail to the GPA database, along with election flyers of the endorsed candidates, and the letter of endorsement, which she also sent to The Enterprise as a letter to the editor. (See opinion pages.)
The e-mail said, in part: "We have, as a group, made great strides in opening up the channels of communication with our school administrators and our Board of Education, and this next election will be the pivotal point for progress. We have moved from having one receptive elected official to at least four now on a board of nine. With this election, we can move forward to having the kind of thoughtful, intelligent, and responsive board we as parents and taxpayers deserve. Never before have we been as close as we are to seeing this happen and never before have we had such talented candidates to endorse."

Mirabile told The Enterprise yesterday, "We have never intended nor do we have any desire to be a negative force in the community. We strive for positive change."

Mirabile said the reason she wrote about the comments Towle-Hilt made in last week’s issues interview with The Enterprise is because the parents who talked to the school board about their children’s failure to read took "great personal risk and went through emotional turmoil to come forward and put themselves in the center of a controversy."
Towle-Hilt had said parents may not have gone through all the appropriate avenues. "It kind of jumped right to the board," she said. She also said her experience as a teacher had been "When a parent comes and says something isn’t working, people bend over to solve it."
"I feel badly when misrepresentations have been made of these parents," said Mirabile. "They had done a great deal of work before coming to the board"The community needs to know what actually happened."
Mirabile concluded of the GPA, "The history of our group with our district and our board of education is there hasn’t been open communication"Changes came as we got more involved in looking at the political process. Some board members have been clear they are interested in listening to the community"As a community-based group, we support them."
Towle-Hilt objected to the statement in Mirabile’s letter that she would have a conflict of interest. "She doesn’t know me. She’s never even talked to me. Because I’m a teacher, I’m supposed to think and act a certain way," said Towle-Hilt.
She concluded, "Being a social-studies teacher, I really have a lot of faith in the democratic process. The community will make a decision it wants to live with and I respect that...Thank God we have a free press. The community needs to hear...I rely on the fact we live in a community of intelligent, fair-minded people."