Filling three seats on the Sedona-Oak Creek School District governing board will be easy this year.
Three people have filed to run for the three four-year seats.
Current Board President Bobbie Surber and current member John Wesnitzer are running again since their seats expire in December.
Tommy Stovall is running for the third seat that expires in December, but has been vacant since June 11 when Ben Miller resigned.
By Alison Ecklund
Larson Newspapers
Filling three seats on the Sedona-Oak Creek School District governing board will be easy this year.
Three people have filed to run for the three four-year seats.
Current Board President Bobbie Surber and current member John Wesnitzer are running again since their seats expire in December.
Tommy Stovall is running for the third seat that expires in December, but has been vacant since June 11 when Ben Miller resigned.
Karen McClelland and Carolyn Huggins will remain on the board.
The candidates remain unofficial, however, until the end of the 10-day challenge period, Wednesday, Aug. 20.
On Thursday, Aug. 21, Yavapai County School Superintendent Tim Carter will issue a press release detailing which districts will hold an election and which will cancel November elections due to just enough or too few candidates.
If by Aug. 21, the three candidates remain, Carter will ask Yavapai County Board of Supervisors to cancel the November election and appoint all three people to the board beginning in January.
Carter would then appoint Stovall to finish out Miller’s term from September to December, he said, so the board can go back to a full five members.
SOCSD wouldn’t be the only district not to have an election, Carter said, who predicts many Yavapai districts won’t have elections.
Statewide districts are having trouble filling vacancies or getting just enough people to run.
“I think we’re having less of a problem here than elsewhere statewide,” Carter said of filling vacancies.
According to the “Arizona Republic,” Maricopa County’s Peoria Unified School District and the Buckeye Union High School District have three candidates running for three seats. Isaac School District has two candidates for three seats.
Surber has a daughter in eighth grade and three others who have gone through the district schools.
She ran for her third term to support the district’s new superintendent, Mike Aylstock, and follow up on the achievements made over the years, she said.
Before filing, Surber pushed the public to see if anyone had an interest in running. She didn’t want the seat to go vacant, she said.
Neither did Stovall, who has a son in second grade at West Sedona School.
“Because I have a son in the system, I care a lot about what’s going to happen in the district,” he said.
All three candidates are prepared to facilitate construction the district will undergo from the $73 million bond.
Wesnitzer ran for his third term to maintain continuity in the district, he said.
“I look forward to helping administration get morale back up in the district and get back into the business of educating children,” Wesnitzer said.
Alison Ecklund can be reached at 282-7795, Ext. 125, or e-mail
aecklund@larsonnewspapers.com
