Two former school board members, one former commissioner candidate and one Upper Pottsgrove resident have applied to fill the vacancy on the Pottsgrove School Board created by the resignation of John Rossi two weeks ago.
Two of those who applied are former school board members, Robert Lindgren and Darryl Herndershot, according to an email from school board President Rick Rabinowitz.
The two other applicants are Charles Nippert, who unsuccessfully applied for a vacancy on the Lower Pottsgrove Township Commissioners and also sought in a seat there in the general election, and Scott Hutt, the only applicant who lives in Upper Pottsgrove.
Rossi resigned at the end of the school board meeting on April 12. He did not give a specific reason for his resignation other than “personal reasons.”
He was appointed in 2014 to replace Kelley Crist, who resigned due to a change in her work situation.
Rossi ran unopposed last fall to fill the remaining two years in the term.
In the wake of Rossi’s resignation, the school board gave applicants until Friday, April 22 to submit resumes and letters of intent.
Rabinowitz issued the email naming the four applicants after being queried about the applicants over the weekend by The Mercury.
He did not immediately respond to a request Monday afternoon for the applications and backgrounds supplied by the candidates.
This will be the second time Lindgren, a former board member who served from 2003 to 2010, has sought re-appointment back to the board.
Lindgren’s most recent application to be appointed to the board came in 2013 for the seat opened by the resignation of Jodi Adams.
That appointment eventually went to Dee Gallion, who lost her seat in last year’s election. (Also among those applying for Adams’ seat in 2013 was Rossi, who was appointed a year later, and Al Leach, who now holds a seat on the board which he won in the November election.)
Lindgren resigned from the school board in 2010 when his U.S. navy Reserve unit was sent back to Afghanistan, where he had previously served.
In that instance, it was David Faulkner who was chosen to replace him. Faulkner decided against running for another term this year.
Also applying unsuccessfully for Lindgren’s seat in 2010 was Hendershot, himself a former Pottsgrove School Board president.
Elected in 1999, Hendershot was named board president in 2003 after the resignation of Marcus Carpenter, who was jailed for embezzling $150,000 from the Sanatoga Fire Company.
At the same time, Hendershot also agreed to fill the two years remaining on Carpenter’s term, leaving the board in 2005.
Nippert, former chairman of the engineering department at Widener University, has never held public office before.
However, he was one of five who applied last year to be appointed to the vacant Lower Pottsgrove Township Commissioner seat vacated by the resignation of Shawn Watson.
Nippert was also the only Democrat to seek a seat on the board of commissioners in November. He lost to incumbents James Vlahos, Bruce Foltz and Steve Klotz.
There was no information immediately available about Hutt.
All four candidates will be interviewed publicly at a special school board meeting on Wednesday, May 4 at 7 p.m. in the Pottsgrove High School cafeteria.
Whomever the school board chooses will serve for the remaining two years on the term of a seat which will soon have its third member in four years.
“On behalf of the board, I want to thank all four applicants for volunteering,” Rabinowitz wrote in the email. ” We are very grateful to have four impressive candidates and look forward to the special meeting on May 4 to interview them.”
