GUILDERLAND — In close split votes this month, the school board here elected new leaders — Allan Simpson as president and Christine Hayes as vice president.

“We’re excited to move forward and continue all the good work we’ve been doing,” said Hayes this week; her running mate could not be reached for comment.

Simpson has been the board’s vice president for the past two years, under Barbara Fraterrigo, the board’s longest serving member, who said at the outset of her presidency, an office she had sought several times, that she would not serve more than two years, wanting to give others a chance to lead.

Gloria Towle-Hilt, a retired Farnsworth Middle School teacher who had served as vice president under Colleen O’Connell before Fraterrigo became president, also ran for the leadership role.

Towle-Hilt, starting her ninth year on the board, praised the “diverse” group of board members, noting their “strong and passionate opinions.”

“We don’t always agree,” she said, adding she would strive to “work a little more collaboratively.”

Simpson told the board he echoed Towle-Hilt’s views. He said he found it a privilege to be on the board and said it would be a “greater privilege” to lead the board.

Simpson received 5 votes to Towle-Hilt’s 4. Two years ago, Simpson had beaten Towle-Hilt, 5 to 3, in the election for vice president.

On July 1, those voting for Simpson were: Fraterrigo, Christopher McManus, Hayes, Simpson himself, and newly elected school board member Seema Rivera. Rivera was out of town and attended the meeting through computer hook-up, voting by texting. The others voted on paper ballots. The Enterprise learned the votes from the district office. The four voting for Towle-Hilt were: Catherine Barber, Colleen O’Connell, Judy Slack, and Towle-Hilt herself.

The vote for vice president broke along the same lines as for president, with Slack garnering 4 votes and Hayes, 5.  Slack, a seven-year board member and a retired teaching assistant, noted she had attended board meetings for 15 years and worked on the district’s budget committee.

Before the vote, Hayes said she had “learned a lot” in her three years on the board and stated, “Allan and I work well together.”

An attorney at Albany Medical Center, Hayes won her second three-year term on the board this spring, coming in first in a five-way race for three seats.

Hayes, 33, who attended Westmere Elementary School and Farnsworth Middle School, graduated from Guilderland in 1999. Having that background, she said during her recent re-election campaign, “makes a huge difference” in understanding the Guilderland schools as she serves on the board.

“I also student taught and substitute taught” in Guilderland schools, she said. “So I can look at both viewpoints.”  Hayes has always lived in the area, with the exception of the years she was away at law school. “One day, with children of my own,” she said, “I want them to benefit from the great educational opportunities I had. I want to make sure we have excellence people can count on.”

Hayes said this week that she and Simpson had spoken before the re-organizational meeting about their prospective roles. “You know how Barbara had a self-imposed term limit,” she said of Fraterrigo. “The natural next step was for Allan to step up.”

She also said, “I was asked by others on the board to step up to a leadership role.” Hayes had considered running for president herself but decided “I had a lot on my plate at work.”

Asked if she thought the split votes for leadership on the board indicated a schism, Hayes said, “Maybe there’s a little bit of a different approach....not necessarily opposing views.”

During her first term, Hayes had proposed cutting the pay for substitute teachers, which exposed a fault line among board members with Barber, O’Connell, Slack, and Towle-Hilt against the pay reduction. The measure was adopted, cutting the daily pay by five dollars as a cost-savings measure, by a close vote.

But then, after fewer substitutes wanted to work at Guilderland this year, the board voted to reinstitute, for next year, the cut pay and more. Board members had a contentious meeting on June 16, when they debated the pay for substitutes and the new structure for administering technology in the district.

“I was very disappointed in the June 16 meeting,” said Hayes. “There was a hostile tone that didn’t need to be.”

She referred to a past retreat the board went on where “group norms” were discussed. “Hopefully, moving forward,” she said, “we can pay more attention to how we relate to each other.”

She also said that lots of boards deal with controversial issues without being contentious. “We can discuss and debate in such a way it give us perspective on what we’re looking at,” Hayes concluded.

“I wish them well,” Slack said of the new board leaders this week. “It will be a difficult year. We don’t agree on everything. Hopefully, Allan will be a strong leader.”