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Botched ballots and district turmoil: school board elections in MO and AK
April 5, 2016
By Mandy Gillip
Across Alaska and Missouri, 43 school board seats were up for election in 19 school districts on April 5, 2016. Eighty candidates filed in these races, including 29 incumbents, or 36.25 percent of all candidates. While several school board races in 2016 saw incumbents fail to retain their seats, 25 incumbents—86.20 percent of all filed incumbents—won re-election to their respective school boards in Tuesday's races. Only 15 newcomers, or 16.25 percent of all candidates, won school board seats. There were also five uncontested races, which were canceled due to a lack of opposition. In these instances, the candidates, be they incumbents or newcomers, were automatically elected.
St. Joseph County, located in Northwest Missouri, hit a stumbling block Tuesday as roughly 63 of its polling locations had difficulties with election ballots. Some precincts reported having too few ballots while others received ballots for the incorrect municipal election. The county elections board attributed the confusion to a database error. As a result, the Missouri Court of Appeals ruled to extend polling by two hours until 9:00 p.m. CDT. Some polling locations re-opened after receiving the ruling, and voters were able to return to cast their ballots. Other voters were able to vote in a neighboring county at the Maplewood Board of Elections Office.[1][2][3]
In response to the ballot problems, St. Louis elections director Eric Fey stated, "At this point all we can do is apologize to the voters affected and going forward. I want to correct this problem. Get to the bottom of it and tomorrow I’ll start a thorough audit of the procedures that led to this and put those proper controls in place."[1] Many voters complained that the mistakes kept them from voting entirely as they had to choose between returning to their polling location late in the evening or driving to another locale. During a St. Louis County Council meeting, also held on Tuesday, the council requested that an inquiry be undertaken as soon as possible.[1][2][3]
Spotlight districts
Kansas City Public Schools
In Missouri's 11th-largest school district, only one candidate filed in a school board election with four open seats. Neither incumbents nor challengers filed for election, leaving the sole filer, Jennifer Wolfsie, to be automatically elected to an at-large position. The remaining three by-district seats in Sub-District 1, Sub-District 3, and Sub-District 5 were write-ins. The Kansas City election officials reported that these results would take at least a week to be returned and that they could be returned as late as April 15.[4]
Spotlight districts
St. Joseph School District
The St. Joseph School District continues to face investigations by the Missouri state auditor, the United States Department of Education, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation related to stipends issued by former Superintendent Fred Czerwonka. The former superintendent, appointed in July 2013, allegedly used a rebate from the district's insurance provider to distribute $270,000 in stipends to 54 administrators without board approval. District policy requires a report to the school board and a deposit of any excess funds, including refunds from vendors. Czerwonka, district Human Resources Director Doug Flowers, and school board member Dan Colgan also face accusations of using their positions to guarantee promotions within the district and raises for family members.
On January 20, 2015, both Czerwonka and Chief Operating Officer (COO) Rick Hartigan were placed on paid administrative leave. The board later voted in February 2015 to fire Czerwonka. Hartigan was fired a week later, and Flowers left the district with a severance package in July 2015.[5]
Shortly thereafter, as a result of the overwhelming controversy surrounding him and his compensation during his tenure, school board member Dan Colgan resigned from his position on March 5, 2015. The resignation came after much speculation regarding his status, largely because as an elected member, Colgan could not have been ousted until the 2016 election.[6]
There is no law that allows St. Joseph Board of Education members to be recalled by voters. Colgan sent a terse resignation letter to St. Joseph Board President Brad Haggard, calling his decision to resign difficult and saying, "I dearly love the St. Joseph School District." The board took applications for the open seat, which board member Chris Danford said they hoped to fill by the April board meeting. In that meeting, the board voted unanimously to appoint local business executive Eric Bruder to fill the position. Bruder ran for re-election on April 5, 2016, but failed to win enough votes to keep his seat. Newcomers Bryan Green and Tami Pasley were ultimately chosen to fill the open positions out of a field of 10 candidates. [6]
Candidates
Alaska
Note: An (i) next to a candidate's name indicates incumbent status.
Anchorage School District
Seat A
☑ Bettye Davis (i)
☐ Brent Hughes
Missouri
Note: An (i) next to a candidate's name indicates incumbent status.
See also
- Alaska school board elections, 2016
- Missouri school board elections, 2016
- School board elections, 2016
- Alaska school districts
- Missouri school districts
Footnotes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 KMOV, "Some polling places beset by ballot problems stayed open late in STL Co," April 5, 2016
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Fox2 Now, "Election officials win appeal to keep polls open after election problems in St. Louis County," April 5, 2016
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 St. Louis Business Journal, "Investigations launched into St. Louis County ballot shortages," April 6, 2016
- ↑ Kansas City Star, "Kansas City school board election results are a week out," April 6, 2016
- ↑ KCUR 89.3, "House Cleaning In The St. Joseph School District Complete," July 30, 2015
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 St. Joseph News-Press, "Eric Bruder chosen as new board member," April 13, 2015
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