DALLAS TWP. — The Dallas School District is advertising for applicants interested in filling a vacant board seat.
The notices — in classified ads and posted online — note the “successful applicant will be appointed until December 2021.”
The board is moving to fill the seat left empty when Mark Bacewicz passed away Oct. 26. A Plains Township native and Coughlin High School graduate, Bacewicz became a professional engineer who settled in the Back Mountain and landed on the School Board as a write-in candidate in 2019 when four seats were open but only three candidates were on the ballot.
Of the 157 write-in votes cast for the fourth seat, Bacewicz garnered 28, more than any other write-in.
By state law, when a seat is vacated before the board member’s term ends, the School Board gets to appoint a replacement. If the board cannot agree on a replacement, a Luzerne County Court Judge steps in and makes the decision.
According to the ads, “applicants should submit a letter of interest and application” to Dallas School Board Secretary N. Lynn Wilson at 2010 Conyngham Ave., Dallas, Pa. 18612.
Applications must be received by Nov. 13.
The board’s next meeting is scheduled for Dec. 7 but a special meeting could be held sooner to vote on the candidates and pick a replacement.
State law says a board must pick a replacement within 30 days of the vacancy or the choice could go to court. While courts likely would not intercede on their own, district residents could petition the courts to make the choice after 30 days, as happened in 2011 when the Wilkes-Barre Area School Board split 4-4 in a vote on two applicants to fill a seat and the 30-day time period ended with no board decision.