RE1J school district cancels election

Two candidates for two seats

With just enough school board candidates to fill the two seats opening up in November, the Gunnison Watershed School District is withdrawing from the upcoming election. Unless either candidate’s petition is disqualified or someone petitions to become a write-in candidate, Marilyn Krill will represent areas roughly north of Round Mountain on the school board and Courtney Fullmer is circulating a petition to represent areas south of that line.

At a special meeting on Monday, August 26, the board passed a resolution stating that without the need for an election to decide who will be replacing outgoing board president Jim Perkins and Crested Butte representative Lee Olesen, it wasn’t worth the expense of participating on this year’s ballot, even with two lingering questions that could go to voters.
When it looked as if there might be enough interest from the community in the available board seats to warrant the $20,000 to $25,000 cost of a place on the November ballot, the board considered asking the public to extend school board term limits or do away with them altogether. That would preserve a place on the board for willing participants at a time when interest in running for the school board is often limited to just a few people.
Superintendent Doug Tredway told the board that the issue of term limits might be taken care of at the state level in the coming year. He also said if it did come down to a vote, the board should prepare for a hard campaign, as the school’s attorney warned the issue of term limits wasn’t a sure thing.
“[The Colorado Association of School Boards] is working on a resolution that would exempt school boards from two-term limits and allow the districts to set the limit,” Tredway said. “It may be prudent just to let them go ahead and change that.”
In the event that the district didn’t need to participate in the election, the board also considered asking voters to allow for an adjustment to the boundaries governing school board representation to account for Crested Butte Community School’s growing population.
But voters won’t see either question this year. The board voted unanimously to approve a resolution withdrawing from the election that will take affect September 3, the deadline for write-in candidates to submit a petition to run for office with the county elections office.