The Trib has a pre-primary story on the many school board candidates. Its not surprising that there are so many candidates when all the incumbents are stepping down but this is not the biggest crop of wannabes that I remember. In the early nineties when there were still 9 not 7 school board members we had one campaign with something like 23 candidates. I didn’t make it out of the primary that time.
The incumbents are all spent and I think they see that the District is headed into a potential vortex of troubles. Mary Cameron got elected with me in 1995 and has served all but two of the intervening 18 years. Ann Wasson has served for two terms for a total of eight years although my old neighbor Roger Wedin mistakenly told the Trib Ann had been on the board for 14 years. I don’t think Mary has enjoyed being on the board for most of he last eight years and Ann may have been facing medical problems. Tom Kasper’s one year star eclipsed early as he did his best to straddle every issue.
The Trib summarizes what these Board member’s successors will face as: “A new School Board is going to face the results of an operating levy vote, an ever-dwindling reserve fund, more yearly budget cuts and former school buildings still unsold.”
If the levies fail this ain’t the half of it.
In the accompanying Q and A piece I was heartened to read almost no support for the existing board’s actions except from Nancy Nilsen who has already suffered one election loss due to her support of the Red Plan. She’s running on the hope of vindication this year. Her results on Tuesday will give me a good idea of how strongly voters support the changes brought about by the Red Plan.
