Two incumbents have filed for the May 21 Sweet Home School Board Election.
The district has five open seats out of nine.
The Sweet Home Fire and Ambulance District and the Sweet Home Cemetery District had no candidates filing. SHFAD has three out of five seats open. The Cemetery District has one out of three open.
Filing for election were Jenny Daniels in Zone 2, Liberty, and Mike Reynolds in Zone 9, Sweet Home. Open seats with no candidate include Zone 4, Cascadia, held by Debra Kay Brown; Zone 5, Crawfordsville, held by Toni Petersen; and Zone 7, Foster, held by Angela Clegg.
Clegg lives outside the Foster boundary area and cannot run for the office, so she did not file. She said she would run for the seat if she could. Her current boundary area is Sweet Home, and only Reynolds’ position is open in Sweet Home.
Linn County Elections Supervisor Derrick Sterling said the winner of the election will be the person who receives the most write-in votes and lives within the Foster boundaries.
Failing to elect or appoint a Foster resident, the board could appoint Clegg to fill the position after the election.
Petersen declined to run, and Brown had not filed by the deadline, March 21. She said she dropped off her paperwork at the district office, but Sterling said it needed to be filed with the clerk’s office.
Brown said she intends to move forward with a write-in campaign. With multiple Debra Browns in the district, voters supporting her should write in her full name, Debra Kay Brown.
The district itself received a notification that the election was coming up, Fire Chief Dave Barringer said, but that did not include information about when the filing was due.
No incumbent board members ended up filing for the upcoming election.
Positions 1, 2 and 3 are open. The seats are held by Larry G. Johnson, Charlene Adams and Tim Geil.
The only option for the incumbents who wish to run at this point is a write-in campaign, Sterling said.
Board President Dawn Mitchell said all three intend to run again and are launching write-in campaigns.
Cemetery District position 3 is open. Sterling said the district was last notified that it was held by John T. Hyer.
The elections office will mail ballots to Linn County voters on May 1.