Coffin, Dozier to run for board

VOORHEESVILLE — Both school board members whose terms are up will be seeking re-election on May 19.

C. James Coffin, who has been on the board for 20 years, will seek a four-year term, school board President David Gibson said at the board’s March 20 meeting.  Coffin is currently out of town and could not be reached for comment.  The board put up for vote, and the public overwhelmingly passed last year, a proposition reducing the unpaid term from five to four years.  The reason was to encourage more candidates to run.

Cheryl Dozier, who was appointed last September to fill the unfinished term left by Paige Pierce, will also run this spring.

“I like thinking about how… to continue the important work that the district is doing,” she said.  Dozier, who is an assistant professor at the University at Albany in the Department of Reading, has lived in the area for 11 years and has been in the education field for 27 years, she said.

When he was preparing to run five years ago, Coffin said that he was doing so because he enjoyed the work and saw it as his way of giving back to the community.  Coffin, who serves as the board’s vice president, worked for the State Education Department in the Division of Educational Finance and Management Services for 32 years, before retiring in 1999.  He and his wife, Betty, have two children, both Voorheesville graduates.

Petitions to enter the race for the four year, unpaid seat can be picked up at the district office, at 432 New Salem Rd., and must be returned with 25 signatures by April 20.