This past Monday, Annetta Stokes Streater gave a premature farewell from the Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools Board of Education as her term expires in 2019. Now, with the election in November, the board of elections is extending its filing period for more candidates to apply for the vacant spot.
Joal Broun, a current board member re-running for election, said North Carolina law required an extended filing period in situations like this.
“Since Streater’s term was over, the remaining term was greater than half of the statutory period, plus it was within the range the statute allowed for an extended filing period,” Broun said.
Broun, School Board Chair James Barrett and Board member Andrew Davidson all have terms expiring this year. Both Barrett and Broun are running for re-election.
“State law controls it, so it had to be open, and the state board of elections selected the amount of time with the advice from us (the current board),” Broun said.
The filing extension period is now Oct. 2 to Oct. 6, meaning there is a chance more people will run.
The board also agreed that since Streater’s term ended prematurely, the candidate that comes in fourth will take her place, finishing Streater's two years left on the term. The top three candidates will fill the other three open positions. With only seven members allowed at a time on the school board, there is a limited amount of seats open.
The fast-approaching filing period has raised questions about whether or not this is fair.
“If a bunch of other people file, of course it’ll make it harder to win, but I think it’s important to have free and fair elections,” said Calvin Deutschbein, a candidate running for election. "Beyond whether it’s fair, which, I think it is, it’s legally required. So because of the existence of that law [the candidates] have to follow the established procedure.”
