Beacon School Board Will Wait for Voters

Also changes name of Columbus Day on calendar

A vacant seat on the Beacon school board will remain unfilled until the next election in May, following a vote by the board on Monday (Sept. 18).

Two other seats, currently held by Yunice Heath and Flora Stadler, will also be on the ballot. The candidate with the most votes will join the board immediately to fill a seat vacated by John Galloway Jr. and serve a three-year term. The other two winners will begin their terms on July 1.

It took the board three votes to break a 4-4 tie on whether to appoint a new member to replace Galloway, who resigned in June, or wait until the May 21 election, when voters will also be asked to approve the district’s 2024-25 budget.

Since Galloway left, the board has debated the merits of filling the seat immediately — which would restore the board to nine members, eliminating the possibility of tie votes — or waiting until May, when voters could decide. It was the fifth vacancy the board has addressed in the past three years because of resignations.

The board said at least two people have expressed interest in being appointed but it did not release their names. On Monday, Board Member Alena Kush said that “if people are interested, we should move to fill the vacancy. Let’s not say: ‘You’re going to have to wait.’”

But doing that would force the board to choose between candidates and, historically, appointment candidates who are not chosen do not run for the office, said Board Member Kristan Flynn, who was appointed to fill a vacancy in 2016. “You have to look at the other people — who you’re proud of for stepping up — and say: ‘Not you,’ ” she said.

“That’s life,” Kush responded. “That’s why we’re here as leaders, to be able to make that decision. I haven’t been in that position on the board, but I’ve been in that position when I’m hiring someone. Someone has to be told: ‘Unfortunately, not this go-round.’ ”

Because state law requires appointees to run in the next election to keep their seat, Board Member Eric Schetter said he didn’t see an appointment as snubbing voters. After an appointee fills out the board until May, then voters will have “their right to vote on that person,” he said.

On the third vote, Flynn, Heath, Stadler, Semra Ercin and Board President Meredith Heuer voted to leave the seat open until May.

Columbus Day

The federal holiday on the second Monday in October will now be known on the Beacon school district calendar as Indigenous Peoples’ Day/Italian Heritage Day.

After months of debate, including the creation of a committee that was unable to reach a consensus, the school board voted Monday to drop the name of the 15th-century explorer Christopher Columbus from the holiday. The move follows the lead of New York City’s public schools, which adopted the dual designation in 2021.

Nationally, school districts on both coasts, as well as many municipalities, have begun recognizing Indigenous Peoples’ Day as a way of honoring the Native American culture that predated Columbus, as well as highlighting the impact of European colonialism on those tribes.

The change in Beacon does not apply to private schools or city government, and it does not signal a change in curriculum. The catalyst for the move was a district resident who last year asked the board to drop Columbus Day, which was declared a federal holiday in 1971, and rename it Indigenous Peoples’ Day.

Flynn made the first motion on Monday to adopt the Indigenous Peoples’ Day/Italian Heritage Day designation. She acknowledged the contributions of Italian Americans but said she disagreed with crediting Columbus with the discovery of the “New World.”

“America was not ‘discovered,’ ” she said. “It was taken from the people who had been living here before.”

That led Board Member Anthony White to suggest amending Flynn’s motion to remove the names of all holidays from the district calendar, instead referring to each of them as a “day off” — a move made by Randolph Township in New Jersey in 2021. “If we’re going to change one, let’s change all of them,” White said, but without a second, his amendment failed.

Schetter then suggested calling the day Columbus Day/Indigenous Peoples’ Day. “We’re not New York City,” he said, “and there’s a contingent here in Beacon that feels very strongly about this holiday.”

Flynn argued that name would discredit the spirit of honoring the Indigenous tribes, because “they believe that arrival is the beginning of colonization and genocide.” Schetter’s amendment was voted down, 6-1, with Kush, who said she did not feel qualified to weigh in on the cultural debate, abstaining.

Flynn’s original motion then passed, 5-2. Schetter and White opposed the motion and Kush again abstained.