Seven Vie for a Single Unexpired School Board Term

The Ocean City Board of Education has only two candidates running in the November election for three open seats (for full three-year terms). But seven candidates will compete on Nov. 5 to finish out the unexpired term of board member Greg Donahue.

Donahue resigned in August. His term expires in November 2014. The election will determine which of the seven candidates will complete the final year of his term.

The candidates are as follows:

• Dale F. Braun Jr.
• Holly A. Buck
• Michael D. Foster
• Daniel J. McGinley
• David E. Powell
• Michaela Walsh
• Jon D. Batastini

• Peter V. Madden
• Raymond M. Clark

The three-year terms of Clark, current board President Brenda Moiso and board member Lloyd Hayes are expiring.

Moiso and Hayes will not seek re-election on the ballot.

Clark, an Ocean City firefighter and father of two daughters in the district, was the top vote-getter among four candidates in the 2010 election.

Madden, a broker manager with Prudential Fox & Roach and father of four, served one term on the board and was president 2010 to 2011. But he was defeated in the November 2012 election that re-elected James Bauer and Tom Oves and brought Jacqueline McAlister to the board.

The third seat will be filled by a write-in candidate for Nov. 5 election, and if there is none, the county superintendent will make an appointment.

Ocean City's Board of Education includes nine members from Ocean City and three from sending districts.

Donahue, 65, was re-elected to his second three-year term in April 2011. The retired principal of Ocean City Primary School worked more than 35 years as an educator in the school system.

He resigned when his daughter was hired as a school teacher in the district (to avoid a potential conflict of interest) and because he is currently working as an interim principal at Brigantine Intermediate School.