By DAVE SCHULTZ
Voters anywhere within the Bluffton-Harrison Metropolitan School District will now be able to vote for all candidates in school board elections.
Brad Yates, the district’s superintendent, told members of the school board Monday night that the Indiana Department of Education had approved the change. Previously, only residents of a particular district could vote for candidates in that district.
The district had earlier opted to change its voting process and sent it to the IDOE for approval.
The school district has three districts and two school board members are at-large candidates. Julie Thompson, the board’s president and one of the at-large members, and Bruce Holland, who represents District 2, announced Monday night that they were seeking re-election.
Wells County Clerk Beth Davis said during Tuesday’s meeting of the Wells County Election Board that other candidates have expressed varying degrees of interest in running for the board but none have filed.
Davis informed the Election Board — consisting of Roy Johnson, Larry Sell, and herself — of the change during the board’s meeting in her courthouse office. She said the change will be noted in the ballot for the general election.
The BHMSD voting change was one topic discussed in a brief meeting of the Election Board Tuesday. Other items were:
• The state’s Department of Local Government Finance has approved the request from the Southern Wells Community School to have a referendum on additional property taxes placed on the fall ballot. It is basically a renewal of the referendum that has been in place for 13 years on seven-year basis.
The school district expects to raise more than $400,000 a year for educational purposes if the extra levy is again approved. The school district opted out of the current extra levy a year early and has made the current request an eight-year additional levy.
• Davis provided results of Saturday’s Republican political gatherings — caucuses to choose a new Jefferson Township trustee (Larry Heckber) and Ossian clerk-treasurer (Angie Ealing) as well as a GOP town convention to choose three Republican candidates for the Zanesville Town Council (John Schuhmacher, Jack Blacksten, and Issac Zent. Davis said that Ealing and Heckber have already taken the oath of office.
daves@news-banner.com
