Superior School Board Trustee 2017

Dan Hazlett and Michelle Parkin won the two open seats on the Superior School Board.

Results:

Dan Hazlett – 424

Michelle R. Parkin – 341

Micki Tourtelotte – 325

Gilbert T. Wilson Sr. – 127

Nicholas Taryn Conrow Ververis – 126

Superintendent Scott Kinney said that he was super excited about the Superior School Board election results.

“Michelle has proven to be a very able leader and has been Board Chair many times in her career on the School Board. Dan is former teacher at Superior and actually taught me when I attended school (there). He’s taught and worked with kids for years. His wife was the county health nurse and their kids are teachers and one is a nurse, and they are a very people centric family. We’re excited to have Dan come on board, as well,” he said.

They were sworn in during the school board meeting on Monday, May 8.

West End Fire Trustee

Three full term seats were available on the West End Fire Board. Winners were John Carpenter, Shawn Cielke, and Brooke Lincoln. Bonnie Rauscher was elected for the unexpired term.

Results:

Brooke Lincoln – 74

John O. Carpenter – 48

Shawn Cielke – 44

William D. Mitchell – 36

James M. Miller – 35

Unexpired Term – 1

Bonnie Rauscher – 76

St. Regis School District bond

The St. Regis Technology Levy failed by 30 votes. Here are the results:

DeBorgia: FOR 33 AGAINST 28

St. Regis: FOR 84 AGAINST 119

Total FOR 117

Total AGAINST 147

St. Regis had asked voters to pass a $50,000 bond to improve the St. Regis School’s technology.

Superintendent Joe Steele said they lost the tech levy by 30 votes and he felt they learned something from this election, “people want to know specifically what the fund will be used for, rather than providing all the information that we did. We need to just stick specifically to what we’ll use the funds for. We also know a lot of people are on a fixed income and that’s hard to address.”

There were also concerns about funds being used for the proposed bus barn and newly built weight room.

“The bus barn was budgeted for a few years ago,” Steele said, “it wasn’t paid for through a levy. It was money that was saved for that purpose.”

He also heard concerns about high administrative costs and why can’t Mineral County schools combine some of the positions, like Superintendents. There are a number of factors involved concerning school’s administration and, “because of the way Montana configures small schools like this, each community will have their own school’s administrators.”

They will be discussing the school budget at the next board meeting and try to figure out ways to deal with the levy’s failure.