Saranac Lake resident Kathy Merritt places her vote in the May 2019 school election at Saranac Lake High School. (Enterprise photo — Kevin Shea)

If you want to run for your local public school board, the deadline to file your candidacy is Monday afternoon.

That date is the same for every school district in the state. The school election day for board members, budgets and special propositions is also the same statewide — Tuesday, May 18.

All school terms are for three years, except for one unexpired term in Lake Placid.

Each candidate needs to file a petition with at least 25 qualified signatures. (The requirement is for either 25 or 2% of the number of voters in the district’s last election, but for that 2% to be more than 25, a district would have to have had more than 1,250 voters, and the Adirondack Park’s districts are too small for that.)

All school board candidates must be U.S. citizens, be at least 18 years old, be able to read and write, be qualified voters in the school district they are running in, and be residents of that district for at least a year continuously, according to the New York State School Boards Association. Candidates cannot be employed by the district in which they are running and cannot live in the same household as a member of that district’s school board.

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Saranac Lake

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The Saranac Lake Central School District board has three openings, for seats are currently held by Nancy Bernstein, Rick Retrosi and Aurora White.

Board clerk Fred Finn said Bernstein has already filed to run for reelection and that White, who currently serves as board president, has told him she plans to run again, too, but that Retrosi has said he does not plan to seek another term. Finn said no one else has filed yet.

Petitions can be filed at the district offices in Saranac Lake High School or at Finn’s office at the bus garage on the Bloomingdale Road (state Route 3).

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Tupper Lake

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The Tupper Lake Central School District board has two openings for seats currently held by Jane Whitmore and Jason Rolley, who currently serve as the board’s president and vice president respectively.

District Clerk Shauni Kavanaugh said she has received no completed petitions yet but expects Whitmore and Rolley to run for reelection.

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Lake Placid

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The Lake Placid Central School District board has three openings for seats currently held by Colleen Locke, Martha Pritchard-Spear and Daniel Cash.

Because Cash was appointed last year to replace Jeff Brownell, who resigned, the election for that seat will be for a two-year term rather than the standard three-year term, according to District Clerk Karen Angelopoulos. The third-place candidate in the election will get the two-year term, which starts immediately on May 20, while the other winners will get tree year terms starting July 1.

Locke is the only candidate who had already filed to run for reelection as of Friday. Angelopoulos said she thinks Pritchard-Spear and Cash will run as well.

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Keene

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The Keene Central School District board has one opening, currently held by Aaron Miller.

District Secretary Cindy Summo said Miller is not running for reelection and that Emily Reynolds-Bergh has filed to run for that seat.

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AuSable Valley

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The AuSable Valley Central School District board has three openings for seats currently held by board President Robyn Pray, Vice President Sherry Snow and Mark J. Allen. District office staff said they have received at least one completed petition but declined to say who had filed to run until after Monday’s deadline.