Incumbents lose in city school board races

By Melody Brunson, Editor

May 06, 2008 11:30 pm

— The Washington School Board will have three new faces when it meets in July, as incumbents Ron Arnold, Rocki Padgett and Randy Bouchie were upset in Tuesday’s Primary Election.
Ten different residents were vying for the three available seats, two in at-large positions and one in District I. Winning were Mike Traylor and Vicki Bubalo at-large, picking up 21 and 20 percent of the votes, respectively, while Peggy Stephens in the First District collected 34 percent of the votes.
Analyzing the totals from the courthouse, Don Spillman, a 37-year teacher in the Washington school system, summed it up, “People wanted a change.”
Traylor was a happy man when he left the Commissioners Room where the vote totals were read to the public and projected onto the wall for about 50 residents who expressed interest in races all across the board. After the final 17th precinct was read for the Washington School Board race, Traylor said his agenda was clear from Day 1.
“I want to make our schools the best they can be. Our kids can do it, and I want to help our administrators, teachers and parents get it done.
“We need more competent test scores...better scores in reading and math, and we need to improve our graduation rate. Right now it’s barely over 70 percent. We can do better,” he said.
Traylor, a long-time social studies and English teacher at Washington High School who’s now retired, didn’t take a position on the closed campus issue now facing the school board, but said he would study it further once on the board.
At the Stephens residence, she and Bubalo were celebrating together Tuesday night. Stephens, who works as a program manager in information technology at NSWC Crane, said, “I’m not sure how you describe the feeling. It’s elation, but concern because it’s a big responsibility.”
She thinks her “No Hidden Agenda” campaign theme brought some attention to an unknown and voters began to question the issues more. Stephens said she considers Arnold, a four-term school board member, a friend, along with her opponents Paula Potts, and Bill Walton.
“I got it in to win and I wanted to run a good race and accept the will of the people,” Stephens added. “I’ll not take this lightly. I appreciate people putting their trust in me.”
A former teacher Bubalo, like Traylor, said she is concerned with Washington’s test scores and graduation rate, although she doesn’t think the ISTEP scores were meant to be used by the media like they have been. She’s disturbed about the teenage pregnancy rate at Washington High School and would like to encourage those girls to continue school to get their diplomas.
“Whatever we can do instead of them being numbers,” she said. “Why aren’t we graduating these seniors? What do we need to do?”
She’s thrilled to have three women on the seven-person board, saying most women have a servant-hearted attitude.
Stephens and Bubalo have both pledged to give their board salaries back to the school’s programs.
Other School Boards
Barr-Reeve’s district one seat had incumbent Galen Graber keeping his seat by collecting 60 percent of the vote, after squaring off against challenger Dwayne Murphy. Graber had 525 votes, compared to Murphy’s 345.
At North Daviess, there were three races, with only one contested. Incumbents Robin Dove, district three, and Tom Nugent, at-large, were running unopposed.
Incumbent Darin Holder, with 41 percent of the vote, won the contested race at North Daviess, district two, against Mike Burkhart and Jonathan Graber. Holder collected 696 votes, compared to Burkhart’s 561 and Graber’s 452.

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