Treppiedi continues to slip against Haynes in Spokane School Board race

Longtime Spokane School Board incumbent Rocky Treppiedi continued to lose ground Thursday evening in his bid to retain his seat as a director with Spokane Public Schools.

After the latest ballot count Thursday evening, Treppiedi’s 26-year-old challenger, Jerrall Haynes, led the incumbent by 774 votes. There are 3,796 ballots left to be counted in the race. For Treppiedi to make up the ground he’s lost, he would need to win roughly 60 percent of the remaining votes. Countywide there are 5,000 ballots left to be counted. The next count will take place Monday.

Treppiedi said he doesn’t plan to concede.

“There is no giant stretch between the two of us,” he said. “I’ll wait and see where things are at and go from there.”

Treppiedi has served on the school board since 1996.

Treppiedi said he didn’t run much of a campaign against Haynes, who has never held public office. Haynes is an Air Force mechanic at Fairchild Air Force Base and the freshman football coach at East Valley High School. Haynes said he didn’t fault Treppiedi for not campaigning harder.

“He’s been in this position for a very long time,” Haynes said earlier Thursday. “He’s built an amazing resume and track record, and with me being a newcomer, he didn’t really expect to have to (campaign), which is definitely understandable to me.”

Treppiedi said he didn’t campaign because he was too busy, not because he underestimated Haynes.

Haynes was backed by the Spokane Education Association, as was Paul Schneider, the University High School teacher who beat his opponent, Patricia Kienholz.

Spokane Valley City Council

Challenger Sam Wood has taken the lead over incumbent Ben Wick to serve on the Spokane Valley City Council.

With 970 votes left to tally in the race, Wood leads Wick by 120 votes, according to numbers published by the Spokane County Elections Office late Thursday.

Wick, the 33-year-old incumbent, led by similar slim margins on election night and again after votes were tabulated Wednesday.

Wood garnered the endorsements of conservative state lawmakers Matt Shea and Mike Padden. Wick has the backing of the Republicans of Spokane County club and Spokane County Commissioners Todd Mielke and Shelly O’Quinn.

The margin in the race is less than the number of write-in votes, which is now 165 ballots cast.

Arne Woodard and Dean Grafos maintained their leads in races for the other council seats.