Statutory deadline trumps publicized deadline

On Board Online • August 20, 2012

By Aileen Abrams
Associate Counsel

A small city school district improperly calculated the deadline for school board candidate nominating petitions  as April 27, 2012 and provided notice of that date to the public. According to the Education Law the deadline was actually April 25, 2012, which was the 20th day preceding the annual election. When a potential board candidate submitted her nominating petition to the district clerk prior to the district’s published deadline, but after the correct statutory deadline, the district clerk refused to accept the petition on the grounds that it was untimely. The candidate appealed to the commissioner of education.

In Appeal of Geiger, the commissioner dismissed the appeal. The Education Law sets forth a statutory deadline for receipt of nominating petitions, and expressly requires that the district clerk of a small city school district, like the one in this case, reject any nominating petitions submitted after that statutory deadline. That remains the case, the commissioner said, even if the district miscalculated and publicly advertised an incorrect deadline.