Nicole Bucka and Peter Carney are vying for the vacancy left by Lori McEwen

Registered East Greenwich voters are eligible to vote in the Oct. 5 special election for School Committee, for which there is a single polling station – Swift Community Center (121 Peirce St.), open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. You can also cast your ballot in the Town Clerk’s office at Town Hall on Monday (10/4) from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m.

The candidates are Peter Carney and Nicole Bucka.

Carney, a Republican, is a businessman with four children in the EG schools. He got more involved in school issues, and the School Committee in particular, last year, when he and other parents formed an ad hoc group advocating for the return to full in-person school at Cole Middle School and EGHS. He has also supported more parent choice around issues such as masking at school. If elected, he would be EG’s only elected Republican official.  Carney declined to participate in the EG News Candidates Forum but he did submit an opinion post about his candidacy – find it HERE.

Bucka, a Democrat, is an education consultant with two children in the EG schools. She is a past president of EG’s Special Education Advisory Committee and has served on various district subcommittees, including the Superintendent Selection Committee, the School Reopening Committee, and the Strategic Planning Committee. Because Bucka’s husband is a teacher in the district, she sought an advisory opinion from the Ethics Commission on whether or not she could serve on the School Committee and was told she could serve but should recuse herself from voting on the teachers contract. In recent years, two other School Committee members (Maryellen Winters and Susan Records) have had children working for the district during their time in elected office. You can find Bucka’s interview with EG News HERE and her opinion post HERE.

For more information about voting in East Greenwich, check out the town’s website HERE.