Qualifying begins next week for city, county school board seats

Two school board seats will be on the Nov. 3 general election ballot and qualifying for candidates begins next week.

One seat is for the Union County School District and one is for the New Albany Municipal Separate School District.

The county school race is for Union County School District 5, currently held by Wayne Mahon.

The city school race is for the representative of the so-called added territory, which is the part of the city school district outside the city limits. David Rainey currently holds that seat.

To qualify, a person must be a qualified elector of the district for which he or she is running, have a high school diploma or equivalent, not have been convicted of certain crimes and, if elected, successfully complete continuous education training within six months and on a yearly basis.

Candidates for both districts have only a one-month window in which to qualify, from Wednesday, Aug. 5 to Friday, Sept. 4.

Both incumbents have indicated they plan to seek re-election.

The county school district has five trustees, all elected by the public and serving staggered terms. The county school districts do not coincide with the county supervisors’ districts and, in fact, are quite different.

Current county school trustees include Terry Cook, District 1; Mickey Basil, District 2; Mike Browning, District 3; Daphnia McMillen, District 4; and Wayne Mahon, District 5.

The New Albany School District also has five trustees, but they are selected differently from the county.

Four of the five city trustees are appointed by aldermen, one from each of the four wards.

The city district also encompasses a couple of small areas that are outside the city limits as well as one large area that extends north on Hwy. 15 and out Hwy. 30 East nearly to Pleasant Ridge.

The fifth trustee represents that area and is elected by popular vote by residents who live in that added territory.

New Albany school trustees include, in addition to David Rainey, Jill Shaw, Barbara Washington, Mark Garrett and Ren Nelson.

The accompanying map shows the city and county district boundaries. The yellow area is County School District 1, the red area is County School District 2, the blue area is County School District 3, the purple area is County School District 4, the green area is County School District 5 and the orange area is the New Albany Municipal Separate School District.

The general election will be Tuesday, Nov. 3. If a runoff is needed after that it will be Tuesday, Nov. 24.