No contest in school board election

One seat still up for grabs

The Gunnison RE1J school district board election won’t be appearing on this November’s ballot. None of the seats opening up on the Board of Education were contested and one of the seats hasn’t been filled at all.

“We didn’t have enough people to have an election so won’t have the question on the ballot,” school board president MJ Vosburg said.
Lee Olesen will be replacing Vosburg as the school board representative living north of Round Mountain and Jim Perkins will return to his previously held position as an at-large representative from south of Round Mountain. Both are four-year terms.
No one showed interest in a second at-large seat from south of Round Mountain that is now held by Terri Wenzlaff, whose term expires in November, and will be filled by a two-year appointment by the Board.
According to Vosburg, there are often people who would be interested in serving but don’t want to go through a political campaign. People interested in an appointment will go through an application process and be interviewed by the Board if there is more than one applicant.
“The campaign is kind of time consuming and it depends on the year…if there are a lot of other things on the ballot then there are a lot of forums you have to show up to and answer questions,” Vosburg said. “Some people don’t want to go through that.”
There is, however, the possibility that no one submits an application, at which point the position would be filled by a true appointment by the Board. District business manager Stephanie Juneau said state statute requires the seat be filled one way or another by mid-November.
“There’s no option to consider an extension,” Juneau said. “State statute requires there be an appointment and the board will appoint someone to the position at their meeting November 9.”
The board will vote amongst itself for the roles of president, vice-president, treasurer, secretary and director at the same meeting.
There was a second question being considered that would have eliminated term limits for board members, but since there won’t be a legal requirement to participate in the election, the board felt it was unnecessary to pay thousands of dollars to be included on the ballot.
The Board will discuss the details of the application and appointment process at a regular meeting September 14.