The four Erie school directors whose seats are on the primary ballot are not seeking reelection, with three running for other offices
A large field of 10 candidates are seeking Democratic or Republican nominations in primary; six of 10 cross-filed for seats on nine-member board
Four candidates are running as a slate; others on ballot include former Erie School District spokeswoman, former Erie County Council member, school district advisory board panelist
The Erie School Board is getting transformed at the same time the Erie School District continues to remake itself after years of endemic financial woes.
Four seats are up for election on the nine-member School Board in Tuesday s primary, and no incumbents are running. A total of 10 candidates are on the ballot.
No matter what happens at the polls, the seven-member panel will look much different in 2022.
However, only one of City Council’s current members whose seat is on the ballot, Democrat Liz Allen, chose to seek re-election.
Besides Allen, a former reporter and editor at the Erie Times-News who was first elected to City Council in 2017, the other Democrats on the ballot are Jasmine Flores; Elspeth “Kate” Koehle; Kendrick Tate; Cory DiLoreto; Marcus P. Yuille; Maurice “Mo” Troop; and Chuck Nelson, a pastor who lives in the city’s west bayfront.
Flores, Koehle and Tate are running as a slate affiliated with local social justice group Erie County United.
The Erie School Board is considering a big decision as the school district prepares to start the $31.2 million update of Erie High School, the district s largest construction projects in years.
The school directors are reviewing whether to waive a union-friendly bidding rule on the project, just as the same board of directors did in January for the $11.4 million in renovations at the Erie School District s Northwest Pennsylvania Collegiate Academy.
The previous waiver applied only to the Collegiate work. The School Board must take a new vote on waiving the policy for the Erie High project.
As it did with the Collegiate work, the administration of Erie schools Superintendent Brian Polito is urging the board to approve a waiver to help the district increase the number of bids on the Erie High project and keep the cost of the renovations as low as possible.