Few surprises in school board election results
By NICK NARIGON
There were few contested seats and little surprises in this year’s school board election held Tuesday, Sept. 8.
“Nobody really had any competition,” said Iowa County Auditor Linda Griggs.
The English Valleys School District had the highest voter turnout in the county with 12 percent, she said. Turn out in the Iowa Valley School Board election was 5 percent while the HLV School Board election had 3 percent and Williamsburg had 2 percent voter turn out.
Three seats were up for election on the Iowa Valley School Board and the three candidates running for those seats were elected.
According to the unofficial election results released by the Iowa County Auditor’s Office, newcomers to the IV School Board Dale Slaymaker and Frank Davis received 116 and 106 votes, respectively. Current IV School Board President Jane Fry received 84 votes.
Public measure D, which extends the IV School District’s physical plant and equipment levy (PPEL) for 10 more years passed with 86 people voting their approval for the levy and 34 people voting against the levy.
In the HLV School Board election incumbents Laurel Hollopeter and Maria Hawkins both ran unopposed.
Hollopeter, the current board president, received 46 votes and Hawkins received 44 votes.
Public measure C, which also extends the HLV School District’s PPEL for 10 more years, passed with a vote of 39 to 9.
According to the unofficial election results released by the Johnson County Auditor’s Office, the Clear Creek Amana School Board election resulted in the most turn over for any of the local school boards.
Aimee Pitlick received 410 votes to replace current CCA board president Dan Schaapveld. Schaapveld is stepping down from his at-large seat. Pitlick beat challenger Barbara Kounkel, who received 188 votes.
Incumbent Kathy Zimmerman was defeated by challenger Eileen Schmidt in her bid to retain her seat as the district 2 representative. Schmidt received 372 votes to Zimmerman’s 259.
No candidates filed papers to replace the vacant seat in district 4 of the CCA School District. Write-in candidate Mick Kahler won the seat with 220 votes.
In the election for the English Valleys School Board, there were two seats open. One of the two official candidates won one of the seats while a won the other.
Steven Axmear, one of the official candidates, received the most votes with 193. Write-in candidate Terri Riegel received 180 votes to claim the second open seat. Write-in candidate Neal Kinzler received 55 votes while the second official candidate, Ralph Miller, received 21 votes.
Public measure B, which extends the EV School District’s PPEL for five more years, passed with a vote of 166 to 82.
Three candidates ran for the three seats up for election on the Williamsburg School Board, and all three candidates won.
Incumbent board members Dianne Foley and Darren Spenler received 76 and 73 votes, respectively. Newcomer to the board, Matt Blythe, received 76 votes.
Public measure E, which sought voter approval on the revenue purpose statement for the Williamsburg School District’s local option sales tax, passed with a vote of 72 to 7.
UPDATED September 9, 2009 10:13 AM