Incumbent leads in CdA school board race
Coeur d’Alene school board veteran Christie Wood was handily fending off a challenge from Hayden resident and self-proclaimed European-American civil rights activist Stan Hess with four of five polling places counted.
Wood had 954 votes to Hess’s 115.
“I’m really looking forward to continuing to serve as a board trustee,” Wood said. “I really appreciate my campaign team and how hard they worked.”
Neither of the two polling places for the other school board race, incumbent Vern Newby versus Hayden resident Brad St. John, had been counted as of press time.
Hess ran unsuccessfully for the North Idaho College Board of Trustees last year and is considered a white supremacist by civil rights groups.
Wood also serves on the North Idaho College board and said she enjoys being connected to higher education and the K-12 schools.
She worked as a school resource officer at Lake City prior to being appointed to the school board in 2000.
Newby, an Avista Utilities employee, has served on the board for 18 years and was elected chairman last year. He and his wife have five children, all graduates of the Coeur d’Alene School District.
St. John, Newby’s challenger, is a father of three and a longtime activist in the district.
Voters in the Lake Pend Oreille School District re-elected board Vice Chairwoman Mindy Cameron. Cameron earned 64 percent of the vote, and challenger Kendon Perry snagged 36 percent. In the Plummer Worley School District, Tami Gauthier ousted board veteran and Vice Chairman Mike Morris on a 23-5 vote.
The low-turnout election on the Coeur d’Alene Indian Reservation wasn’t the smallest North Idaho school election – 21 voters in the tiny Mullan School District turned out to elect write-in candidate Jerry Ploharz over Wayne “Bud” Koski, 14-7. Incumbent Douglas Jutila did not seek re-election.
Incumbents in the Avery, Kellogg, Kootenai, Lakeland, Post Falls, St. Maries, Wallace, West Bonner and Boundary school districts were automatically re-elected after running unopposed.