New Law Extends Terms of Wyandotte School Board Members

All of Wyandotte’s members were given an 18-month extension to their terms in office under legislation signed into law Tuesday.

Beginning Jan. 1, school board elections in all Michigan communities must be held in November of even-numbered years to coincide with local, state and federal general elections.

Because the terms of Wyandotte board members were set to expire in odd-numbered years, the new legislation automatically extended them until the end of the following even-numbered year to ensure they were in compliance.

The terms for board members Kathy Bedikian, Christopher Calvin, Patrick Sutka and Michael Swiecki were set to expire June 30, 2013, but now are extended to Dec. 31, 2014. Their positions will next be voted on in November 2014.

The terms for board members Dana Browning, Robert Kirby and Stephanie Miello have been extended from June 30, 2015, to Dec. 31, 2016. Their positions will come up for election in November 2016.

Supporters of the legislation say the change will help to even further consolidate elections and save local communities money, in addition to ensuring that school board elections are held during traditional elections when voter turnout is at its highest.

The dates when Michigan municipalities and school boards could hold elections were consolidated a few years ago and gave governing bodies a few options to choose from. The new law takes those regulations even further.

However, there is a hiccup.

While the majority of communities across the state hold general elections in November, Wyandotte does not. When city leaders had an option to change several years ago, they instead opted to move elections to May.

So the school board consolidation law that just passed won't be consolidating anything in Wyandotte as elections will still take place months apart.

"I tried to get the council to switch to a November election, but they balked," City Clerk William Griggs said. "It would be better if everyone went to November, but our council refused. ... You need to standardize elections. You'll have a higher turnout and it's just plain logical."

Griggs, who becomes impassioned when talking about Michigan election law, said he would prefer all the voting regulations be changed to allow absentee voting for everyone.

"This council agreed to go to an all-absentee ballot," Griggs said. "We passed a resolution and sent it to the Legislature. It was received and placed on file. On their end, not on ours."

Other states that have gone to all-absentee style of voting regularly have 75 percent to 85 percent voter turnout, Griggs said.

In the last local election in Wyandotte, there was a 21 percent turnout. In the last Wyandotte school board election, turnout was 9 percent.

Wyandotte school Superintendent Carla Harting said she's staying away from the political element of the new law.

“It’s fine,” she said. “I really am not taking a stand on it one way or the other.”

The Michigan Education Association, however, opposes the move.

“What these new laws really do is again strip school boards of local control and make school board elections more political, with school district business being lost in other issues,” the group said in a statement.