55% of school boards remain unchanged after election, few new members joining boards
Kentucky School Advocate
December 2020
By Brenna R. Kelly
Staff writer
More than half of the state’s 171 school boards remained unchanged after November’s election. Just 104 new members were elected to boards, the lowest number of the past three similar election cycles.
The relatively low number of new members should not be a surprise, as there were fewer new candidates on this year’s ballot. The 160 new candidates who filled for election was the lowest number of new candidates of any similar election cycle since 2012. The number of new candidates fell 42 percent from the 2016 election cycle, the last in which three seats on county boards and two seats on independent boards were up for election.
The dearth of new candidates was likely the result of a perfect storm of the coronavirus pandemic, a change in filing deadline and new requirement for high school transcripts.
After the ballots were counted, 356 incumbents were re-elected, leaving 94 of the state’s 171 boards unchanged. Of the incumbents running, just 16 percent faced a challenger in this year’s election. The number of returning members is the highest of the last three similar cycles. The next highest was 2008 when there were 340 incumbents re-elected.
New members will begin their terms Jan. 4. However, any boards left with vacancies after the election will have 60 days from Jan. 1 to appoint someone to the seat.
While most boards have incumbents keeping their seats, eight boards – Boyd, Marshall, Mason, Nicholas, Owen, Trimble, Anchorage Ind. and Dawson Springs Ind. – have no incumbents re-elected either because they did not file or were defeated.
Notable races
The longest serving board member in the state will serve even longer. Frank Riney III, who has served on the Daviess County board for 44 years, won another term. Riney, received 70 percent of the vote to defeat challenger Sharon Castle.
“I was dusting off 40-year-old campaign signs this time around, and some have aged better than I have,” Riney told the Messenger-Inquirer.
He said he was appreciative of voters’ support and looks forward to continuing to improve the district.
“It’s always humbling when your constituents vote on what you’ve done in the past,” Riney told the Owensboro Times.
Another longtime board member, Kay Sharon, who had served four terms on Hardin County’s board, lost her seat to challenger Steven Thomas Bland. Bland, who has served as county attorney, district judge and circuit judge, will be joining the Hardin County board where his parents John William Bland and Elizabeth Bland both served.
Bland, who was also an FBI agent, received 60 percent of the vote.
Close races
When the filing deadline passed, Ashland Independent had three open seats and just one candidate, incumbent Patsy Lindsey. Three people filed as write-in candidates and when the election was over Lindsey was easily re-elected and write-in Ashley Layman won a seat with 575 votes.The remaining seat was decided by just 11 votes. Write-in candidate Blake Gillium received 303 votes to David Jay Hill’s 292 – prompting the Ashland Daily Independent to report that Gillum won his seat on the board by “a gnat’s hair.”
In another close race, McCracken County board chairman Chris Taylor held on to his seat by just 14 votes. Taylor won over challenger Alice Shemwell who requested a recanvas that did not change the vote totals.
“The vote totals in my district were quite a bit more this year than they were four years ago, but I'm excited to get the win and continue moving forward – to make sure that we keep students safe and be as transparent as can be,” Taylor told WPSD-TV after the election.
Double duty
Newly elected Boyd County board member Lisa Wallin is also a school librarian. Wallin works at Ashland Independent Middle School and plans to retire in May after 27 years in the district. Both she and her children attended Boyd County Schools.
Wallin has already been sworn into her new role, as she was appointed to replace Boyd board member Judy Nichols who died in September.
“We’re excited to have Lisa on the board. I’ve known her and her kids for a long time ... she will bring a unique perspective to the board of education as an educator from a different district,” Boyd County Superintendent Bill Boblett told the Ashland Daily Independent.
Crowded races
In Simpson County, the race to replace incumbent Heidi Estes, who did not file for re-election, garnered four candidates. Chrissy Cummings won the seat by just 16 votes.
Pikeville Independent Schools had seven candidates on the ballot for two open seats. Incumbent Ashley Brown kept her seat and will be joined on the board by Bill Staggs. Staggs, who is the pastor of Meta Baptist Church, was elected to the board in 2015 but stepped down a year later when his son took a job in the district.
In Newport Independent, there were six candidates for three seats. All three incumbents sought to keep their seats and the three challengers decided to campaign together to defeat them.
The challengers, Aaron Sutherland, Billy Cole and Timothy Curl, campaigned as ABT. The trio sent out a a flyer with all three men’s pictures on the front and on the back it read:
“Together these talented, committed citizens will improve the schools with Accountability, Better relationships and a voice for the Teachers.”
Despite the joint campaign, only one of the three, Aaron Sutherland, won a seat on the board. Incumbents Julie Smith-Morrow and Melissa Sheffel kept their seats while incumbent Teresa Miller was not re-elected.
Back and forth
In McCreary County, two candidates traded wins for the third time. Former board member Johnny Barnett defeated incumbent and KSBA Board of Directors member Debbie Gibson.
The pair ran against each other in 2004 and Gibson won the seat. Then in 2008 they ran and Barnett won the seat. In 2012 they ran again and tied with Gibson winning the seat in a drawing. Gibson won again in 2016 when Barnett did not run. This year, Barnett won the seat easily with 70 percent of the vote.
There will be another new member of the McCreary County board as incumbent Nelda Gilreath won the election but died shortly after. The board will have to appoint someone to serve the remainder of her term and then fill the vacancy again in January.
Breaking barriers
In Erlanger-Elsmere Independent, write-in candidate Serena Baker-Owen won a seat on the board where she served as the district’s first Black female teacher. She’ll now be the first Black member of the board.
In 2016, Baker-Owen was named one of the Outstanding Women of Northern Kentucky. She received the Standing Up for Justice award in 2015 from Kentuckians for the Commonwealth. She also received the Governor’s Recognition Certificate for Community Volunteerism in both 2014 and 2015.
Baker-Owen will replace Rachel Faris who was appointed to the board in August after John Christiansen resigned.