GUILDERLAND — On July 5, the Guilderland School Board unanimously re-elected Seema Rivera as its president for another year.

She was first elected board president, also by unanimous vote, in 2019, having been elected to the board in 2015 and elected vice president in 2018.

Rivera drew some criticism this past year for affirming the right of LGBTQ+ students to use their pronouns of choice and for supporting other diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives.

The hotly contested school board race in May turned in part on those issues with the teacher-backed slate winning a convincing victory.

Teacher Katie DiPierro, making her first run for school board on the winning slate, took her oath of office on July 5 as did Kimberly Blasiak, who had been appointed to the board to fill a vacancy last October. Because she came in fourth in the election, Blasiak will fill out the one year left in the term.

The other three winning candidates will each serve three-year terms.

Gloria Towle-Hilt, who won a sixth term in May, did not seek to retain her post as the board’s vice president. Rather, the fourth candidate on the winning slate, and the election’s top vote-getter, Kelly Person, was unanimously elected vice president.

Towle-Hilt is now the board’s longest serving member as Barbara Fraterrgio, who formerly filled that role, was ousted. Fraterrigo had been lauded at the board’s June meeting for her eight terms, 24 years, on the board. The superintendent praised her for always doing her homework, and all of the board members applauded.

Person, a pilot who has served in the Air National Guard for 25 years and is now an inspector general, first ran for the board in 2019 because of her four children; Person said that she and her wife chose Guilderland because of the schools.

Rivera, a Guilderland graduate, worked as a high-school chemistry teacher in New York City and then in the Germantown and Cairo-Durham school districts before teaching in the department of education in Clarkson University’s Capital Region campus. Rivera and husband have two daughters in the Guilderland schools.

On Tuesday, the New York State School Boards Association released an analysis focused on the 1,453 board candidates elected in May and their challengers, endorsing organizations, campaign platforms, and conversations generated across social and traditional media.

The Guilderland elections were typical of the trends documented by the association, which found 54 percent of elected candidates were incumbents. In Guilderland, that included Person, Blasiak, and Towle-Hilt.

The analysis also found that teachers’ union endorsements held weight with 88 percent of candidates endorsed by unions elected; 54 percent of the successful endorsed candidates were incumbbers while 46 percent were newcomers.

The Guilderland Teachers Association supported the winning slate. Fraterrigo told The Enterprise on Election Night that the winning slate had support from the New York State United Teachers, which distributed several sets of fliers across the district. “So much money was spent …. Messaging is powerful,” she said.

Finally, the association’s analysis found that “most of the 1,453 elected candidates did not base their campaign platform around ‘hot-button issues’ such as DEI, parent curriculum challenges, and COVID restrictions/policies. Based on the analysis, the majority, though not all, of the candidates who did base their campaign platforms on these issues lost their election.”

In Guilderland, the losing slate was formed through a Facebook group called “Taking back our school boards” as part of the national Pro-parent Choice movement that started with parents objecting to their children having to wear masks in school. Several of those candidates voiced concerns about LGBTQ+ training of faculty and about the school district’s approach to diversity, equity, and inclusion.

The analysis found that winning candidates focused on themes of community cohesion; fostering inclusivity; and expanding programs related to science, technology, engineering, and math, known as STEM.

A number of school districts had more candidates than usual running this year; Guilderland had 10, double the usual number. 

The New York State School Boards Association estimates fewer incumbents chose to seek re-election than in previous years, finding about 30 percent of incumbents whose terms were expiring decided not to run again, compared to about 25 percent in previous years.

“Incumbents cited reasons such as being ready to move on to something else, the time commitment associated with board service, and a hostile environment for public officials as reasons for not seeking re-election,” the analysis said.

Voter turnout statewide was up 23 percent over last year.