School Board Election

Tuesday, May 4th

Remember that this is the general election for the School Board and not a primary election.

If you live in District 1, or 7, please remember to vote. There is no contest in Districts 3 and 5 and the other districts are not up for election this year.

School Board Candidate Forum

According to the Statesville Record and Landmark there will be a forum for School Board Candidates on Tuesday, April 13^th, from 7:45 to 9:00 p.m., at Little Joe’s Chapel in Barium Springs. The local Chambers of Commerce and various media outlets are sponsoring the forum. It will follow the forum for the Iredell County Sheriff candidates.

Please note that the initial information printed in the April 4^th edition of Record and Landmark, as well as posted on their web site, includes some incorrect information. Contrary to the information provided by the Record and Landmark, there is no primary for the School Board elections and there is no School Board election in November. The May 4^th election is the general election for the School Board. In both District 1 and District 7, the candidate with the most votes wins the election. As I reported earlier, no one filed to run against John Rogers (District 3) or Bill Brater (District 5) so they will continue to serve on the School Board.

According to the Record and Landmark, if you have a question that you would like to be asked of one or more of the candidates at the forum, you may e-mail your question to dibach@statesville.com with a subject line of ‘Candidate Question.’ It is also reported that due to limited time, not all questions will be asked.

School Board Elections

The filing period for the School Board elections ends Friday, Feb. 26^th, at noon. Four Iredell-Statesville Board of Education seats are up for election. Those are the seats representing districts 1, 3, 5 and 7. School Board elections are nonpartisan and are to be held at the time of the May primary election. The term of office is for four years.

The information below depicts the schools included in each district as well as the current School Board member representing each district.

District 1- Dr. Ken Wilson

Union Grove, Harmony, North Middle, North High, Central, East Middle (district also overlaps with West Middle and West High)

District 3- John Rogers

N.B. Mills, Northview, Pressly, Statesville High, East Elementary (district also overlaps with West High, North High, West Middle, Statesville Middle, Monticello, Ebenezer, and Third Creek)

District 5- Bill Brater

Celeste Henkel, South High, Troutman Elementary, Troutman Middle, Lakeshore Elementary, Lakeshore Middle, Lake Norman High, Shepherd (district also overlaps with West High, West Middle, and Sharon)

District 7- Karen Watson

Mt. Mourne, Brawley, Lake Norman Elementary, Woodland Heights (district also overlaps with Lakeshore Middle, Lakeshore Elementary, and Lake Norman High School)

According to the Iredell County Board of Elections, Dr. Ken Wilson, Mr. John Rogers, and Mr. Bill Brater have each filed for reelection. Mr. Robert Bobinski has filed to run in the election for the seat representing District 7. As of Feb. 19^th at 2:22 PM, Ms. Watson has not filed for reelection.

In my opinion, unless there is some significant change within the School Board there will not be any significant change in the administration of the School System. NOW is the time for some individuals to step up and speak out for the students. If you live in one of the school districts up for election, please either consider running for the School Board or encourage someone who will make a good candidate to do so.

According to Iredell-Statesville School Board Policy Code 2110, no School Board member shall serve more than two consecutive terms. According to the I-SS web site Dr. Wilson is in his second term and Mr. Brater is in his first term. I could not find information regarding the number of terms for Mr. Rogers and Ms. Watson.