GUILDERLAND — Judy Slack, who is resigning after 16 years on the school board, was applauded at the board’s August meeting.

At age 80, she has decided to step down from the board with nearly two years left of her three-year term.

“I love this district,” Slack told The Enterprise earlier. “And I’m proud, proud, proud to have been a part of it.”

She had worked for 24 years as an elementary-school teaching assistant before becoming a board member.

Rather than holding a special election, which the board’s president, Balance Gonzalez-Parker, noted was costly, the board decided to fill the vacancy by interviewing applicants and making an appointment, a method it has used in the past.

The successful candidate is expected to be appointed at the board’s Oct. 1 meeting and will serve for seven-and-a-half months until the school board elections in May.

The posts on the nine-member board are unpaid. In last May’s election, five candidates vied for three seats. Incumbent Gonzalez-Parker was re-elected along with two teachers making their first run for the board — Nina Kaplan and Tara Molloy-Grocki.

Anyone interested in being appointed — candidates must be at least 18 and live in the district — is to submit a letter of interest and a résumé by Sept. 13 to the district clerk, Linda Livingston, either by postal mail to Guilderland Central School District, Post Box Box 18, 8 School Road, Guilderland Center, NY 12085 or by email to livingstonl@guilderlandschools.net.

The school board will interview the candidates at 6 p.m. on Sept. 24 in a public session that will be videotaped.

Board members agreed at their August meeting to have a retreat after the new board member is appointed.

“It would be great to have a retreat where we can learn together,” suggested Gonzalez-Parker, adding, “It’s not a spa-like outing.”

Superintendent Marie Wiles said a retreat would be useful in light of having three new board members and “board members in new roles.”

She suggested the school attorney could speak about “responsibilities of board members, things like conflicts of interest and confidentiality … the fiduciary responsibility that comes with being on a school board.”

A second idea, Wiles said, would be to invite the district’s new attorney for support of special education.

“One of the reasons why we went with this particular law firm was because, during the interview process,” Wiles said, “they really talked a lot about being able to provide professional development to the district as a whole, helping our administrators, helping our faculty understand roles and responsibilities, and by extension, I mean the board of education has a pretty significant role.”

Wiles said the session would be “baseline professional development for the board done together.”

While board members will be learning from workshops elsewhere, Wiles concluded that “learning as a team … is often more powerful.”

Other business

In other business at its Aug. 13 meeting, the Guilderland School Board:

— Heard from Wiles that staff will come to school on Sept. 3, orientation sessions will be held at the middle school and high school on Sept.4, and classes begin on Sept. 5.

Wiles also reported that 83 Guilderland students attend the regional summer school at Niskayuna High School, and that classes were held during the summer at Guilderland Elementary School for students with disabilities and for students learning English as a new language;

— Agreed to continue cooperative bidding with other Board of Cooperative Educational Services for the 2024-25 school year;

— Approved 10 service agreements for students with special needs;

— Approved internship agreements for the State University of New York colleges at Potsdam and Plattsburgh;

— Approved an agreement to operate a combined ice-hockey team for students from Scotia-Glenville, Mohonasen, Schalmont, Voorheesville, and Guilderland;

— Approved renting eight classrooms along with ancillary services to the Capital Region BOCES. The rental per classroom is $12,000 for a total of $96,000 and the base for services is $14,250;

— Reviewed a list of surplus or obsolete items including 149 Chromebooks and 156 Apple iPads;

— Established school breakfast and lunch prices at the same rate as last year;

— Agreed to an “emergency pesticide application” for poison ivy along the sports fields near woods at the high school and middle school and on the playgrounds for three elementary schools — Altamont, Lynnwood, and Westmere;

— Approved confidential emergency response plans for each building;

— Approved a Project S.A.V.E. [Safe Schools Against Violence in Education] Plan for 2024-25, which is posted to the district’s website.

“Creating and maintaining safe schools requires comprehensive preventive interventions, and crisis response measures.,” says the plan. “All such protocols and systems must be part of a comprehensive plan intended to address problem behaviors, unsafe situations”;

— Approved a settlement agreement with William Deane Kenealy and accepted his resignation;

— Approved policies on district records, graduation ceremonies, and video cameras on school buses; and

— Heard a request for an impartial hearing for a student with a disability and appointed a hearing officer.