Officials respond to Dryden school board election controversy

Editor’s note: A previous edition of this story stated that Lyon and other community members voiced their opposition to the results and the petition called for a recount as well as further investigation. This information has since been corrected in this version of the story. The petition, available at this link, calls for an investigation into the 333 voters who were not previously listed in BOE poll books. Lyon voiced his support for the petition at the Board meeting. 

On May 18, three new members were elected to the Dryden Board of Education (BOE) — Bridget Flanigan, Justin St. Juliana and Nancy Crawford — defeating incumbents Joan Stock and Lawrence Lyon (incumbent Ron Szymanski retained his seat).

Not long after the election, Lyon and other community members voiced concerns toward the election process, and a petition began to circulate online calling for further investigation into the high number of voters who weren’t previously listed in BOE poll books.

Tompkins Weekly spoke with Margie Malepe, president of the BOE, and Dryden Superintendent Joshua Bacigalupi in regard to the concerns, and both voiced their utmost confidence in the election process and results.

At the May 24 BOE meeting, Lyon and a few community members spoke to the Board about their objections, citing three factors that made this election different from past years — ink bleeding, high participation and a high number of voters who were not previously listed in BOE poll books.

“I have no question that the people that were running the election, the workers, the people that were manning the polls, all did an excellent job,” said resident Chris Gibbons. “But I do have some concerns with what seems like maybe a countywide problem with the ballots. They were apparently printed on the wrong paper stock, and that caused some problems with pens bleeding through, and … there’s a concern of the accuracy of the machine reading and stuff like that.”

Givens called for an official recount of the vote, and soon after his comment, Lyon voiced his support for an investigation as well.

“I share the view expressed in public comment that these deserve some scrutiny. I also share the view — I should just say it’s my personal hope — that absolutely nothing would be found from such scrutiny,” he said. “In recent memory, it’s almost impossible for me to imagine a greater number in the past of people who voted whose names did not appear in the poll book. … I do think that the Board would be well served to, going forward, look at the way we do the elections.”

Malepe clarified what sparked an issue over ink bleeding on the ballots.

“What was happening was that we started with pens, but the pens were bleeding to the other side,” she said. “So, the district clerk reached out to the Board of Elections, and they suggested that we go to pencil. So, at some point during the day, we switched to using pencil for the ballots.”

Despite the change, Malepe expressed her confidence in the voting process.

With the high voter count some brought up, Malepe said that this year’s BOE election had 1,038 voters, which is significantly higher than participation in recent years’ elections (last year had nearly 1,000 votes, but 2019 and 2018 had less than 800 each). Malepe attributes the high participation to a few factors.

“It’s all speculation, but there were four open seats. Typically, there are three, but one individual was serving in a one-year capacity to fill a vacancy,” she said. “I think we had just a really active community that wanted to be involved, so there was a lot of campaigning going on. And students were engaged, the community was engaged, and people were interested in participating.”

At the May 24 meeting, resident Kathy Russell spoke to the increased student participation.

“I was very excited to see students participating in this election,” she said. “They were out there on the corner on Monday before the election, holding placards for who they wanted to win, and I thought that was wonderful. Caring about civic issues is the element for participating in a democracy that’s genuine. And I want Dryden to be a microcosm of the genuine democracy.”

Bacigalupi said the high participation is a good sign of community interest in the work the BOE is doing.

“When more people are participating in the process, then you have, from my perspective, a clearer mandate about what the community values, wants, sees, and not just with the Board, but with the budget,” he said. “Our budget passed by huge margins, and so, that really says to me that we have a mandate of support from our community. So, I feel really good about the budget vote and the elections.”

As for the concern around a high number of people voting who weren’t in BOE poll books, Malepe explained that the poll books are updated every five years, so if someone hasn’t voted in five years, they’re removed from the poll books. But that doesn’t mean those not in the poll books can’t vote, Malepe said.

“What I speculate could have happened is, because there was a lot of publicity about the vote and for open positions, that people who haven’t voted in our School Board elections for a long time may have decided to come out and vote,” she said. “And also with the students being so engaged, I think we may have had a lot of students who voted.”

Malepe added that BOE election staff were diligent with making sure that everyone who voted provided identification proving they were over 18 and signed a declaration verifying that they’re qualified to vote.

“I know for certain that identification was required and that policy was followed,” she said. “I showed up at the poll with my 18-year-old son, and he being 18, he was not already in the poll books. And he forgot his license. They know me, they know him, [but] he went back to the house to go get his license. They weren’t making exceptions, which I would not have asked for an exception. But I have no reason to question the results.”

Other community members also raised the objection that there were many BOE voters who cast ballots who weren’t registered to vote. Malepe explained that “you don’t need to be registered to vote to vote in a school board election.”

“There’s some misinformation out there about that,” she said. “All you need to do is you need to be a U.S. citizen, you need to be 18 years old, and you have to be a resident of the district for 30 days prior to the vote.”

As of right now, there are no plans to investigate the election results or to hold a recount, Malepe said. The only way the BOE could hold a recount would be for someone to request one from the New York state commissioner of education, she explained.

With the election over, the BOE is turning its sights to other work, mostly surrounding finishing off the 2020-21 school year and making plans for fall. Malepe said that COVID-19 has created a challenging year for the BOE, but a dedicated team — plus support from Bacigalupi — gives her reassurance that they can tackle any remaining hurdles.

“We have an outstanding superintendent with Josh Bacigalupi,” Malepe said. “He’s really amazing. And he’s really kind of turned things around for us. … I just think our morale is better, our retention of faculty, staff and administrators has improved, people are really happy to work in Dryden — they really are. And I’m just so impressed with him and how he’s moving forward.”

Bacigalupi also voiced his support for the BOE’s upcoming work.

“Dryden has a nine-member school board, which is the largest you can have in New York state and is unusual to have that many members for a district of our size,” he said. “But what’s really nice about that is you have nine people who are coming to the table with very varied experiences and understandings and experiences but all coming together under the common understanding of love for the district or wanting to see the district succeed. So, when you have that many different kinds of perspectives, that can do nothing but add value to the district itself.”

In Brief:

Tour the PowerHouse in Dryden

The town of Dryden, HeatSmart Tompkins and Get Your GreenBack Tompkins are pleased to announce a one-day event featuring the PowerHouse tiny home, a mobile energy education and outreach tool.

On June 12 from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., Dryden residents and the general public will have the opportunity to explore the tiny home’s interactive exhibits on energy efficiency measures, heat pumps and going solar.

Visitors can also learn about thousands of dollars in grants and incentives available to help cover the cost of home energy improvements and clean heating and cooling technologies for eligible households (renters and homeowners). Energy educators from Get Your GreenBack Tompkins and HeatSmart Tompkins will be available to answer questions!

The PowerHouse will be parked at the Dryden Agway parking lot, 59 W. Main St., Dryden. Visit https://www.tinypowerhouse.org for more information about the PowerHouse.

Dryden residents are encouraged to enroll in the Energy Wi$e Dryden campaign (https://t.ly/yQeW), or call 607-500-HEAT, to get a free assessment for home energy improvements while helping to secure grant funding for the town.

Unveiling of the Butterfly Wings Mural

Art in Dryden is unveiling the winning design of the contest mural on the outside wall of the Dryden Hotel, 42 W. Main St., from 4 to 4:30 p.m. Meet the artist who will receive the $3,000 prize.

The wings are 12 feet wide and 8 feet high. For more information about the project, visit https://www.tompkinsweekly.com/articles/colorful-wings-coming-to-dryden-this-spring.