Gallagher and Swertfager to seek re-election to Katonah-Lewisboro Board of Ed

CROSS RIVER, N.Y. - Two Katonah-Lewisboro school board trustees, their terms ending this year, are asking district residents to return them to their seats for another three years.

Lorraine Gallagher and Bill Swertfager say they will seek re-election when the community goes to the polls on May 19. Both are finishing their first terms on the board, Gallagher as its president and Swertfager as the finance committee chair.

Any resident wishing to run for a seat can email Kimberly Monzon, the district clerk, at kmonzon@klschools.org or call 914-763-7020 to schedule an appointment to obtain a candidate packet. Nominating petitions, signed by at least 25 KLSD residents, must be filed in the clerk’s office here by 5 p.m. on Monday, April 20.

The school board is KLSD’s policy-making body. Its seven members hire the school superintendent and oversee the work of the district staff and educators. At least two members are elected every spring by a vote of district residents.

Gallagher and Swertfager were elected three years ago, capping a tumultuous 2022-23 school board term.

It began with reports that Swertfager, a Katonah businessman who had built the John Jay High School wrestling program over two decades, would not be reappointed as the team’s coach. Some 300 supporters—among them residents, including parents of wrestlers, current and former wrestlers themselves, and coaches from neighboring schools—turned out for an early November school board meeting. More than 70 of them trouped to the microphone to applaud Swertfager, depicting an inspirational molder of character as well as a dedicated coach.

Protests continued for months, even after the school board—in a 6-0 decision with one abstention—ratified Swertfager’s ouster. Gallagher, then president of the John Jay Boosters Club, was an outspoken supporter of the coach, appearing at board meetings into the new year.

In February, both announced plans to seek election to the board. In May, after two incumbent trustees chose not to defend their seats, a dramatically higher-than-usual turnout swept Gallagher (with 2,147 votes) and Swertfager (2,127) into office.

Their only announced opposition that year came from a write-in candidacy. KLSD elections, typically include dozens of write-in votes often thrown away for spurious “candidates” ranging from Donald Duck to Donald Trump. The 2023 write-in balloting had 59 names, most of them garnering from one to a handful of votes. But one serious contender, Samantha Hirsh, drew a remarkable 1,081 votes after a brief campaign.