The humdrum business of nominating school board members in several school districts turned into a civil dispute Monday after several challenges against potential candidates were heard in Butler County Court.

Butler County Solicitor William White noted that since at least 2005 there haven't been any court challenges to decide if candidates from schools would be allowed to run in the primary elections.

But this year there were four candidates whose legitimacy in running was challenged, and on Monday morning Judge Michael Yeager heard arguments from both sides. In all of the cases, the challengers argued that the candidates submitted their nomination paperwork a day after the March 9 deadline.

Donna Eakin challenged Timothy Danehy's candidacy for school director of South Butler County School District. She also challenged George Zacherl's nomination. Zacherl voluntarily withdrew his petition to be nominated before Monday. That left Danehy's case, and during Monday's court hearing, Nicole Lynn Thurner, representing Eakin, argued that Danehy's paperwork was submitted a day late and violated a Pennsylvania ethics act. Yeager agreed with the argument and struck Danehy's nomination petition from the ballot.

Eakin described herself as a resident of the South Butler County School District, and Thurner noted that any elector can challenge any petition in their district. Thurner also noted that Eakin is a school board member in the same district.

“Those two individuals didn't comply and everybody else did, and she didn't think it would be fair if they didn't comply with the rules,” Thurner said after the hearing. “For people who are running in the future, it's important to know the requirements of running or getting on the ballot.”

In another case, Vicki J. Esswein filed a petition against Mars Area School District to remove one of the candidates to the board for violating the state's ethics code. Esswein didn't identify which candidate she thought violated the code. The case was rescheduled on Monday.

In the final case, Bryan M. Sack challenged Diane B. Hunter's nomination paperwork to the Moniteau School District for also being a day late.

Hunter testified Monday that she had completed the paperwork by March 9, but she was unable to submit it to the school. Yeager decided to remove Hunter from the list of candidates.

“My client is pleased with the outcome in court, but more importantly, looks forward to serving the community,” said Gary Vanasdale, an attorney who represented Sack.

During the hearings, White represented the county's election bureau in all of the cases, and he said that the candidates who were being challenged did not violate the election code, despite violating the ethics code.

“From the bureau's position, everything was filed correctly,” White said. “They failed to timely take their paperwork to the school districts. That was the fatal defect.”