Congratulations New Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti School Board Members

Photo by Ruth Kraut

Current Ann Arbor school board members Baskett and Stead have won re-election. Joining them will be long-time school volunteer Donna Lasinski and former Ann Arbor teacher and principal Pat Manley.

Photo by Ruth Kraut

Unofficial results from the Washtenaw County elections web site.

Ann Arbor Sch Brd Member			View Precinct Detail
Susan Baskett	13780	3336	17116	15.01%
Jeffery Harrold	7628	2017	9645	8.46%
Donna Lasinski	13113	2675	15788	13.85%
Patricia Ashford Man	10921	2927	13848	12.14%
Jack Panitch	6170	1614	7784	6.83%
Deirdre Piper	5258	1092	6350	5.57%
Christine Stead	12176	2762	14938	13.10%
Hunter Van Valkenbur	9365	2478	11843	10.39%
Don Wilkerson	6485	1424	7909	6.94%
Roland Zullo	6643	1537	8180	7.17%
Write-In	586	39	625	0.55%

Photo by Ruth Kraut

One of the very interesting results to me here is that Deirdre Piper--who decided not to continue her campaign after she suddenly lost her mom in September--drew nearly 5.6% of the vote--only a little bit less than Jack Panitch and Don Wilkerson, both of whom I saw on the campaign trail.

Photo by Ruth Kraut

I am so thankful that we had so many good candidates to choose from. Considering that school board pays almost nothing, sucks up a lot of time, and you often get criticism, if you see a candidate who ran and won, congratulate them. If you see a candidate who ran and lost--thank them for being willing to put themselves forward!

First Election for Ypsilanti Community Schools Board Has Interesting Results

Remember, the YCS is the result of the merger of the Ypsilanti and Willow Run schools, and the first Ypsilanti Community Schools Board was appointed, not elected. It is great that so many people wanted to run for school board. Only a couple of the incumbents got re-elected.

Again, unofficial results from the county elections web site.

For the six-year terms:

Ypsilanti Comm Sch Bd 6yr			View Precinct Detail
Bill Kurkjian	1923	724	2647	14.54%
Brenda Meadows	4423	1492	5915	32.49%
Gregory Myers	2642	1050	3692	20.28%
Maria Sheler-Edwards	4301	1468	5769	31.69%
Write-In	156	24	180	0.99%

Maria Sheler-Edwards is an incumbent; Brenda Meadows is not.

For the four-year terms:

Ypsilanti Comm Sch Bd 4yr			View Precinct Detail
David R. Bates	2417	1106	3523	12.98%
Ellen Champagne	2816	927	3743	13.79%
Djeneba Cherif	2238	604	2842	10.47%
Celeste Hawkins	3272	1130	4402	16.22%
Sharon Irvine	3235	1188	4423	16.30%
Linda Snedacar-Horne	1820	671	2491	9.18%
Anthony VanDerworp	1488	673	2161	7.96%
Mark Wilde	2456	889	3345	12.32%
Write-In	186	27	213	0.78%

Celeste Hawkins is an incumbent--the other two are not. Sharon Irvine is a former Ypsilanti Public Schools administrator (and candidate for superintendent). David Bates, the Board President, and former Ypsilanti Public Schools board president, will not retain his seat. I'll admit to some surprise that newcomer Djeneba Cherif, a former YPS student who said she was inspired by her Ypsilanti teachers to go into education, did not win a seat. Everyone whom I asked in Ypsilanti was planning on voting for her--which maybe just goes to show you what a myopic view we each have as individuals.

Ypsilanti Comm Sch Bd 2yr			View Precinct Detail
Don L. Garrett Jr.	2209	920	3129	16.99%
Ricky Jefferson	1840	639	2479	13.46%
Sharon Lee	3141	953	4094	22.23%
K.J. Miller	1524	520	2044	11.10%
Daniel L. Raglin	1507	748	2255	12.24%
Meredith Schindler	3187	1073	4260	23.13%
Write-In	137	22	159	0.86%

Meredith Schindler and Sharon Lee got elected. Neither are incumbents. Where this gets interesting is that Sharon Lee had withdrawn from the race due to health issues after the ballots were printed. Which means she won with zero campaigning. So I guess that now she has to decide if she really is withdrawing. If she does, she resigns and the board then follows the procedure for choosing a school board candidate after a resignation. So it won't automatically go to the third-place two-year candidate. 

Whitmore Lake Annexation lost in Ann Arbor, won in Whitmore Lake, which means that it lost overall

Am I disappointed? Yes. But I'm not surprised. The ballot language was terrible and there were lots of unanswered questions.

Onward!

[And that's enough blogging for a month of Sundays! Expect things to be quite a bit quieter around here now!]