School Board incumbents run unopposed
By Mary Loden,Of the News-Tribune
Two candidates, both incumbents, have filed for two seats on the West Hancock School Board, to be decided at the annual election on Sept. 9.
They are incumbent Paul Kumsher for the At Large position and incumbent Darla Yeakel for District 2.
Other districts with races are Garner-Hayfield, Titonka and Woden-Crystal Lake.
Garner-Hayfield has an At Large seat open with incumbent Tim Tusha refiling.
In Titonka two At Large seats are open with incumbents Leroy Hoffman and Daryl Chapin refiling.
Woden-Crystal Lake has one seast open in District 2 and incumbent Tracy Muth has refiled.
WCL will also have a ballot measure to eliminate director districts and make all board seats at large.
School board positions are currently three-year terms, however the terms of service are set to change in 2009.
“The election on odd years only starts next year (2009). We have staggered our terms so that we have three of the seven up for re-election on one election and the other four seats will be two years later,” said West Hancock Superintendent Richard Keith.
“We also had to make sure the two "at-large" seats were not contested the same year. To do this, we made the seats currently held by Darin Eckels and Kristi Gast to be four-year terms.”
Paul Kumsher and Darla Yeakel's seats that are up for re-election in September will still be for three years, set to expire in 2011.
“I'm not convinced this is going to be good for schools,” Keith said. “For positives, we will save a little bit of money in election expenses every other year and board members will have more experience by the time they have finished four years.”
“For negatives, it might be harder to get people to run for four-year terms, with three or four seats always open the turn-over in board membership can be huge especially if we would happen to have four new members at once!”
Story created Aug 05, 2008 - 12:20:49 CDT.
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