Kentucky School Advocate
August 2023
By Brenna R. Kelly
Staff writer
Even though it’s an off-year for school board elections, there will be at least 45 school board seats on the ballot this fall.
The elections are for unexpired terms that have been filled by an appointee. Under state law, any school board vacancy that has an unexpired term of one year or more on Aug. 1 after the vacancy occurs “shall be filled for the unexpired term by an election to be held at the next regular election.”
Board members who are elected in the Nov. 7 race will begin their terms as soon as the results are certified. If no one files for the unexpired term, state law says there will be a new vacancy on the board starting Nov. 1.
For example, if a district has an unexpired term to which someone has been appointed, but no one filed for the seat by the June 6 filing deadline, that seat will become vacant on Nov. 1 and the board would have to restart the appointment process.
While most of the appointees who are on the ballot to fill the unexpired term are unopposed, there will be some contested races on the ballot.
In Fayette County, two people are challenging incumbent Marilyn Clark who was appointed to the board in January after Christy Morris resigned. Challenging Clark will be William Swope Jr. and Janet Greene.
Swope is a retired state fire marshal and former Lexington assistant fire chief who was one of four people who applied to be appointed to Morris’ seat.
Greene has worked in healthcare in business development, patient advocacy and clinical trial research. She is a provider integration manager for Strive Healthcare.
Clark is a supplier diversity manager at the University of Kentucky who previously worked for Fayette County Schools and Lexington-Fayette Urban County Government.
In Oldham County, Allison Sheffer, who was appointed in March, will defend her seat against Jared Barrett. Sheffer, a mother of four children who currently attend Oldham County Schools, was one of six candidates who applied for the open seat after longtime board member Joyce Fletcher resigned. Sheffer worked in compliance for Humana and holds a master’s in business administration with a specialty in health care and gerontology.
Barrett is an archaeologist with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in the Louisville District. He previously served as a school board member in Murfreesboro Tennessee Schools before moving to Kentucky about five years ago. He has two daughters in Oldham County Schools.
In Montgomery County, appointee Bill Morgan will run against challenger Josh Oney. It will be the second time the two have run against each other in a year. In the November 2022 election, Oney defeated Morgan, the incumbent by 21 votes. Oney then resigned in January after the attorney general ruled he could not serve because his brother had started a job at the district. The board then appointed Morgan to his old seat.
Oney said that after he resigned, his brother left employment with the district.
“I am now excited to run for this position once again as my brother is no longer employed by the school system and hope to be able to serve Montgomery County and its talented youth,” he said.
Longtime Hardin County board member Charlie Wise filed for the November 2022 election, but then withdrew from the race to run as a write-in candidate for Hardin County judge-executive. Tommy Metcalf then filed as a write-in candidate for school board and won the seat.
But while attending KSBA’s Winter Symposium, Metcalf learned that he could not serve on school board due to an employment conflict. He is employed by the city of Elizabethtown. Metcalf resigned and the board appointed Wise, who had lost his bid for judge-executive, back to the seat he had held for 16 years.
In the upcoming election, Wise will face Metcalf’s wife, Cheryl Benitez. Benitez served as chair of the Hardin County Republican Party before she resigned in February.
There will also be a Jessamine County school board seat on the ballot this fall. The appointee is not running for the seat leaving two newcomers to vie for the board – Michael Foster and Frederic “Eric” Walsh.
In fall 2022, Walsh tried to run as a write-in candidate for the seat. State law, however, says that if no one files for a school board seat then there is no election and a vacancy exists on Jan. 1. The board appointed Denise Adams, who had held the seat, to serve until the November election.
In Warren County, Bowling Green Independent appointee Cierra Waller will face Janet Burks. Waller, associate director for Student Success in Western Kentucky University’s Center for Innovative Teaching and Learning, was appointed to the board after Jane Wilson resigned in December 2022.
Burks filed to run for the board in the 2022 election but withdrew her candidacy just before the election explaining on Facebook that she did not want to give up substitute teaching in the district.
In Lyon County, William Simpson who was appointed to an open seat earlier this year after no one filed for the seat in November 2022 election, will face challenger Aimee Hildalgo-Brown.
2023 election
Aug. 8: Candidate filing deadline for a vacancy that occurred after the June filing deadline.
Oct. 27: Deadline to file as a write-in candidate. Reminder that if no one filed for the seat, there is no election and the seat will be vacant as of Nov. 1, according to KRS 160.190.