Orchard Prairie Schools Chairman Files For Wrong Position

Stephen Flinn filed to run for another term on the school board of the tiny Orchard Prairie School District and went on vacation.

Good thing. He needed to be calm and rested this week.

Three seats are up for election on the board, and Flinn somehow filed for Position 2, when he should have filed for Position 1.

In doing so, Flinn, who is chairman of the board, left his own seat open and uncontested to challenger Kenneth Lewis.

Lewis is a longtime resident of the community, who himself went through school there.

Position 2, on the other hand, has three contestants: Flinn, incumbent Arnold McDonald and challenger Holly Millar.

“He shouldn’t have made a mistake like that. But I saw it in his own handwriting,” said Bob McMillan, Orchard Prairie school superintendent.

Flinn, who has served eight years on the school board, did not return repeated phone calls asking for comment.

McDonald and county elections supervisor Tom Wilbur, however, both explained that Flinn went to the elections office to ask which position he’d been assigned. Somehow - and stories diverge on this point - he got the position number wrong.

Flinn maintains a county employee told him his seat was Position 2. The county maintains that it was Flinn’s mistake.

There are a few ways this blooper can be put right.

“This is not my screw-up,” McDonald said. “But under the law, apparently I have to file a lawsuit to rectify this.”

That’s one way.

Another way, Wilbur said, would be for challenger Lewis to agree to withdraw. That would leave one position without candidates, triggering an extra three-day filing period. Then Flinn could also withdraw and file for the right seat.

“I don’t at this time plan on filing a lawsuit,” said McDonald. “It does nothing but make the school district look bad.”

, DataTimes