AMHERST — A seven-way competition for five two-year seats on the Amherst School Committee will be the lone contest on the town’s Nov. 5 ballot.
Four of the five School Committee incumbents — Peter Demling, Allison McDonald, Eric Nakajima and Kerry Spitzer — are seeking reelection. Three newcomers — Benjamin Herrington, of 99 J Southpoint Drive, who ran unsuccessfully in March 2018, Katie Lazdowski, of 20 Overlook Drive, and Lauren Mills, of 12 Longmeadow Drive, Apartment 11 — are challenging them. The seven residents all turned in nomination forms with signatures of 50 registered voters by Tuesday’s 5 p.m. deadline.
Amherst School Committee Chairwoman Anastasia Ordonez is not running for a second term.
The top five vote-getters will win seats on the School Committee.
Amherst’s first odd-year town election this fall will be the only one held without district and at-large seats on the Town Council up for grabs. The 13 councilors, elected last November and seated in December based on provisions of the new town charter adopted in March 2018, will not have to run again until 2021.
The five slots on the School Committee are among 15 positions on four elected boards that will be on the ballot, though there will not be competition for the six trustee positions for the Jones Library, the three townwide elected members of the Amherst Housing Authority, or for the Elector under the Oliver Smith Will.
All six incumbent library trustees, Lee Edwards, Tamson Ely, Christopher Hoffmann, Alex Lefebvre, Austin Sarat and Robert Pam, are vying for reelection without challengers.
For the Housing Authority, incumbents Michael Burkart, Nancy Schroeder and David Williams are seeking reelection, and for Elector under the Oliver Smith Will, incumbent Carol Gray appears poised to keep her seat as the lone candidate on the ballot.
Scott Merzbach can be reached at smerzbach@gazettenet.com.
