215 BOARD ELECTION PROCESS
I. PURPOSE
The purpose of this policy is to outline the process for electing individuals to the The Journey School (TJS) Board of Directors.
II. GENERAL ELECTION PROCEDURE
A. Elections shall be held annually for the Board of Directors. Board members are elected to staggered three-year terms.
- Board positions – one licensed teacher, parent or legal guardian, and a community member.
- Board officers are elected at the first meeting at the newly seated board.
- The Board of Directors shall consist of at least five members with the target configuration of nine members, but may have as many as eleven members with Board approval.
B. The Election shall be held at the Annual Meeting on call of the Board.
C. The Board shall designate the deadline for individuals to declare their candidacy for the election.
D. The deadline for a voter to submit a mail-in ballot shall be three business days before the Annual Meeting. (ballots must be postmarked by the third day before the Annual Meeting or hand delivered to the District office by 4:45 p.m. on the third day before the Annual Meeting)
E. The Board shall designate the voting location(s). The location(s) must be stated in the voting instructions. Ballots dropped off in-person must be hand delivered to the District office and placed into a secured ballot box by the eligible voter.
F. The Board shall designate one or two people charged with securing the Voting Box(es) and will lock the Box(es) up when they are not in attendance.
II. VOTING ELIGIBILITY
A. Any parent or legal guardian of a student enrolled at TJS shall have one vote.
B. All paid Staff shall have one vote.
C. Community members serving on the board shall have one vote.
D. No one may have more than one vote.
III. DETERMINING THE ELECTION WINNERS
A. Write-in names will be allowed on the ballots.
B. The candidates with the highest number of votes win.
C. In the event of a tie for an elected position, a coin toss will determine the winner. Present at the coin-toss shall be the individuals who are tied for votes, the Director, and the Board Chair or appointed election official.
D. The Election results will be certified and presented at the next Board meeting and published in the TJS Board minutes. Election results (winners only – no tally numbers) will be published in the next TJS newsletter and/or posted on the TJS website.
E. The Election list of eligible voters, signature sheets, and ballots shall be electronically filed with Board documents and kept for 1 year.
IV. MID-YEAR VACANCIES
Per the TJS Bylaws, if there is a vacancy among the Directors, such vacancy may be filled for the remainder of the term by a vote of the Board of Directors. The Executive Committee shall propose a candidate to the Board of Directors at least 5 days before the Board is to vote on the candidate.
V. VOTING PROCEDURES
A. One ballot sheet, one signature card, one Privacy Envelope, and one Voting Envelope will make up a “Ballot”.
B. A Ballot shall be provided to each eligible voter.
C. Voting instructions will be disseminated to all eligible voters.
E. At the Voting Location(s), voting envelopes shall be put in the Voting Box unopened. F. The Voting Box must be locked in the office when it is not attended.
VI. COUNTING PROCEDURES
A. The Board shall appoint at least three individuals charged with counting ballots.
B. Counting occurs at a set time the day after the ballots are due in the office either by mail or hand delivered.
C. Mailed in Voting Envelopes will first be sorted. Those postmarked after the election deadline will not be counted, but put into the Invalid Ballot pile.
D. Invalid ballots will be kept separate and tallied at the end for reporting to the Board. Reasons for invalid ballots include:
- No signed signature card.
- Ineligible Voter
- Not an official ballot.
- Postmarked later than the deadline.
- Not delivered to the Voting Location by the deadline.
- Marking too many candidates will invalidate the votes for that section.
E. One appointed election official will open the Voting envelope, give the signature card to another official, who will cross check the signature sheet with the Election voter eligibility checklist to ensure one vote per person.
F. After cross checking, that Privacy Envelope containing the ballot will be put into a counting pile. Ballots without the Privacy Envelope should also be placed into the counting box for counting.
G. In the event that more than one ballot is received from the same person, only the first vote will be counted.
H. Ballots without a signed signature sheet will not be counted, but will be placed in an “invalid ballot” pile.
I. After all Voting Envelopes are opened and cross-checked, the ballots in the counting box should be mixed and then counted.
J. Each official will tally all ballots. If all counts do not agree, they will be recounted. K. The number of ballots will be verified with the number of signature cards.
L. The election certification report will be filled out and given to the Board Chair, to be included in the Board Minutes for the next meeting.
M. The Board Chair or school administrator will call all candidates to inform them of the results (winners first), congratulate them, and remind them of the date for their first meeting.
VII. ELECTION ELIGIBILITY
A. Community Member: an individual who does not have any current connection to TJS or any previous connection in the last five years. Connections to TJS are defined as anyone previously employed by or having a family member employed by TJS, or previously attended or having a family member who previously attended TJS. The intent of the community member involvement is to provide an outside perspective for the benefit of TJS. The five-year time frame is intended to allow the development of an outside perspective if the person had previous ties to TJS.
B. Parent: an individual who is the parent or legal guardian of a student who is currently attending TJS and whose enrollment is expected tocontinue for the duration of the school year. The parent member cannot be
employed by TJS in any capacity during their term on the Board or at the time after their nomination. If parent or legal guardian is employed by TJS, they shall be considered a teacher representative and not a parent representative.
C. Teacher: an individual who is a licensed teacher and employed as a teacher by TJS. For purposes of this Section, the term includes instructional, supervisory, and support staff including supervisors, secondary vocational and other classroom teachers, librarians, counselors, school psychologists, school nurses, school social workers, audio-visual directors and coordinators, recreation personnel, media generalists, media supervisors, and speech therapists. The Director and lead administrator or Principal of any TJS school are ineligible to serve on the Board.