LAKE VIEW, IOWA – JULY 19, 2010
1. Board approves at-large school board elections.
- John Scott makes several points.
-- At large is what the majority of voters voted for
-- If two people are running from the same district, one of the candidates will be eliminated
-- If a single person is running in a district, there will be no competition for that candidate.
-- It’s hard to get candidates to run.
--- Sac CSD switch to the at-large method for this reason.
-- At large is the current method in both district.
-- It will make it harder for an unannounced write in candidate to get elected without first having to share her (or his) views with the public.
-- When WLVA joined the first attempted vote had the language of separate voting district. It wasn’t until that was changed to have “at-large” language that the measure passed and WLVA district became a reality. This may be a factor in why it was approved by the voters.
-- The “by districts” method would not divide the districts up into geographic regions that did not correspond to how the districts were divided back in the days when Sac and WLVA were separate schools.
2. School Board President Chuck Brotherton claims he was contacted by several people who wanted at large voting. He claims no one wanted the school vote divided into districts.
- The other board members were either not contacted since the vote, or were only contacted in the days immediately following the consolidation vote.
- Most of the people who weighed in said that the school should not pass up possible good candidates just because they don’t live in the correct geographic area.
3. Dr. Fiene seemed to support an at-large method of choosing directors when he said, “This is a new district, and the “at-large” approach facilitates that a lot better than the director [method].”
The point he was making to everyone gathered is that having director districts would only serve to remind voters that any given candidate is from X geographic area which could make some suspicious that they are working only in the interest of the area. A candidate who has to be elected by the entire district has to have a majority of the voter’s trust, regardless of where that voter lives.
4. Several school board members weighed in in support of that sentiment.
Copyright (c)2007-2010 Curtis Bloes All Rights Reserved
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