by Victoria Howell
School board elections will be held this spring. Trustee positions are open at all the valley school districts. Some districts are also running levies which will appear on the ballot. The elections are by mail, with ballots going out in mid-April. They must be received back by May 5. Although the filing deadline for school board trustees has passed, write-in candidates have until March 2nd at 5 p.m. to fill out the necessary paperwork at the office of the school district in which they reside.
In Florence two positions are open. Three people have filed for the open seats: incumbents Bobbie Ketelhut and Lacy Janes, and Virginia Mahn. Florence is not asking for a levy in this election cycle.
Stevensville has three positions open. Two current board members, Dan Mullan and Ben Meyer, have decided not to run again. Gayle Johnstone has been certified by the county as an official trustee candidate. She is the only candidate that was certified for the two open positions. According to Supt. Jon Konen, write-in candidates for the other position have until March 2nd at 5 p.m. to come into the district office and fill out the paperwork.
An additional open trustee position at Stevensville, vacated by Nathan Bean on February 10th, will be filled by those that send a letter of interest and complete an interview with the school board on March 10th, the day of the next regular board meeting. So far, two people have submitted letters of interest for the one position: Skip Gibbons and Chris McKoy. Anyone else interested in the position has until March 5th at 4 p.m. to submit a letter of interest to the district office.
Stevensville will also have two levies on the ballot, a technology levy and a safety levy. Voters will be asked to approve a technology levy of $75,000 in both the elementary and high school districts and a safety levy of $175,000 in each district, for a total of $250,000 in each district.
The Lone Rock school district has two open trustee positions. Incumbents Gary Leese and Matt Schaefer have both filed for reelection. If there are no write-in candidates, Leese and Schaefer will be elected by acclamation.
Lone Rock is also running two levies, a technology levy for $100,000 and a school and student safety and security building reserve fund levy for $50,000.
The Victor school district has two trustee positions open. Three people have filed, incumbent Steven Fryer, and Kendra Hill and Collin Riley. Victor has no levies on the ballot.
Three people have filed for three open positions on the Corvallis school board. They are Becky Anderson, Dan Wolsky and Amy Lewis. All three are incumbents. Corvallis is not running a levy.
In Hamilton, three people have filed for two open board positions. They are incumbent Eli K. Johnson, and Weston D. Harmon and Marisa Neyenhuis.
Hamilton is also running a technology levy for $430,000 and a safety levy for $475,000.
The Darby school board has one trustee position open. One person has filed and that is incumbent Ashley Christopherson.
Darby is not running a levy.
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