Voters will be casting ballots in contested races for school board members in nearly every local school district.
Filing ended Friday for 15 open school board seats in this fall’s general election.
A total of 27 candidates filed for open local school board seats, leading to contested races on the Center Grove, Clark-Pleasant, Edinburgh, Franklin and Greenwood school boards.
In one race for an open Clark-Pleasant school board seat that represents Pleasant Township, five candidates have filed. Five candidates have also filed for three at-large seats on the Center Grove school board, according to the filings.
School board members are in charge of setting the annual budget for their school district, approving teacher contracts, hiring and reviewing the superintendent and setting policy for local schools, such as accepting advertising sponsorships or the grading scale.
They also approve school construction projects, such as the new elementary school Center Grove is currently building, and a potential new elementary school that Clark-Pleasant will be considering in future years. If a school district needs to redistrict because certain schools are becoming too crowded, school board members approve that plan, too.
School board members are paid an annual salary, typically about $2,000 per year, and attend monthly meetings.
The contested school board races will be on ballots this fall in the general election, along with races for sheriff, county council and state and federal offices. School board races are nonpartisan, so candidates are not running as part of a political party.
In past years, school board races have been a driver for voter turnout, with residents wanting to decide who should represent them in decisions about their school district, election officials have said.
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Here is a look at who will be on ballots this fall for local school board seats:
Center Grove At-Large, three seats
Scott Alexander
Hunter L. Haskell
Joe Hubbard
Adam Norman
Jack L. Russell
Clark-Pleasant, Clark Township, two seats
Rodney Benker
Isaac Brewer
Laura Cope
Clark-Pleasant, Pleasant Township, one seat
Jerry Adkins
Judith R. Olds
Beth Poe
Terri Lynn Roberts-Leonard
Amanda Trimble
Edinburgh, At-Large, one seat
Angel Emerson-Burkman
Jason R. Lawson
Alice Nancy Taulman
Franklin, Needham Township, one seat
Joel P. (Joey) Ott
Ryan Waggoner
Franklin, Union Township, one seat
Gregory A. Hurrle
Becky F. Nelson
Greenwood, At-Large, two seats
Jay S. Arnold
Brian Ford
Michael Metzger
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