Monday, February 29, 2016

Nine Seek Three School Board Seats



School Board Election 2016 - April 19

Nine candidates met the filing deadline today to run for election to the Plainfield school board. They include two incumbents, two former board members, a previous candidate and four first-time candidates.

The filing deadline was 4 p.m., but before 9 a.m. Plainfield View author and school board member David Rutherford had introduced his readers to candidate James Plummer, who is joining incumbents Wilma Campbell and Frederick Moore Sr. on a slate. Campbell, currently the board president, is seeking her fifth three-year term. Moore won an unexpired term in 2012 and a full term in 2013.

Former board member Jackie Coley ran successfully in 2012, but lost a 2015 bid for re-election. Dorien Hurtt won in 2011, but not in 2014.

Carmencita Pile previously ran in 2010 for an unexpired term.

The four new names include Plummer, Lynn B. Anderson, Alice F. Horton-Mays and Rev. Valeria Yancey.

Update: Mayor Adrian O. Mapp says he will be supporting Lynn Anderson, Dorien Hurtt and Carmencita Pile as a slate.

The Plainfield League of Women Voters has already set April 13 for a school board candidates' forum, 6:30 p.m. in the Anne Louise Davis Room of the Plainfield Public Library, 800 Park Ave.

The election is the first one in April after four years of November voting in conjunction with the general election. In 2012, the City Council voted to move the school board contest from April to November and on Nov. 10 last year, the Board of Education moved it back to April. 

One of the arguments for reverting to April was that residents would have a say on the school budget, which was passed by the board in April even after the election change to November. Click to see Plaintalker's commentary on the school budget.

--Bernice

4 comments:

  1. Thank you, Bernice. I hope we can get some new people on the BOE. We need to start working for our kids, not for the Campbell special interests.

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  2. It looks like somebody is a little worried, is that why the Campbells are running two slate? Do they really believe the slate with Jackie Coley will take votes from the slate the Mayor is endorsing thus giving Wilma and her slate an advantage?

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  3. Anonymous 11:09, you are an idiot. That wouldn't make any sense.

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  4. The purpose of returning elections to April (and spending upward of $100,000 to do so) is to deter politics, correct? Yet here we have slates and implied alliances.

    Good luck to those candidates running to affect positive growth for the education of our youth and community. Good luck to those who are knowledgeable in what it requires to run an effective school district. Good luck to those who are not swayed by fast talking and a quick buck.

    Terica

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