GOWANDA — A special Gowanda Board of Education meeting last week led to members rejecting a petition that was submitted to reduce the number of board members from seven to five. The vote to reject the petition was not unanimous, as school board member Mark Nephew voted against rejecting it.

Gowanda’s attorney, Jeff Swiatek, was on hand to walk the Board of Education through what was in front of them. Swiatek said what the voters were attempting to do does align with what they are capable of doing.

“The education law also provides that in certain circumstances in regard to certain topics, the voters can circulate a petition and if the petition is sufficient,” said Swiatek. “Then it can compel the board to place a proposition for the voters to act on, either at the annual district meeting or a special meeting.”

According to Swiatek, voters don’t have unrestricted ability, as there are only certain topics the voters can compel to put on the ballot, and increasing or decreasing the number of board members or increasing or decreasing the term of board members is potentially within the power of voters.

“One point I want to make real clear is that the board shouldn’t be acting on whether or not it agrees with the purpose of the petition,” said Swiatek. “Whether or not you’re in favor of or against reducing the number of board members should not be a motivation to any board members. Your obligation is to look at the petition as submitted and determine whether or not it’s proper to place before the voters.”

The signatures of individuals on this petition were all deemed to be that of verified voters and the number of signatures also exceeded the necessary amount.

However, what stood out to Swiatek upon his review of the petition was the improper education law that was cited.

“I have viewed the petition and the one thing that immediately leaped out… the petition refers to education law section 2502,” said Swiatek. “The Gowanda Central School District is governed by an entirely different law, and the process by which board members can be reduced… is found in entirely different sections of law.”

Because the wrong law was cited, Swiatek said the board was under no obligation to correct a petition’s deficiency, meaning they could determine the petition was misleading based on that. Swiatek added that there was no precedent he was aware of that could have helped influence the board’s decision one way or another. School board member Max Graham said that, while the intent of the petition is potentially clear, because of the improper citation, they have a responsibility to ignore the petition.

“Is this something that can be remedied and brought up down the road? Probably,” said Graham. “But I think with what we’re seeing at face value, we have improper citation of the law and it’s not about opinion … it’s simply the merit of the letter of the law in front of us.”

The next meeting of the Gowanda School Board will be on Wednesday at 6:30 p.m. in the Middle School library.