Still no school board candidates with four days left

Only four days remain to qualify to run for a seat on the Union County School Board. The deadline is Friday, Sept. 4

As of Monday, still no one had qualified for the seat that will be on the November general election ballot, although two potential candidates had obtained the necessary qualifying papers according to circuit clerk staff.

Potential candidates for the school board have only a brief one-month window in which to qualify. The period began Aug. 5.

The county school race that will be on the November ballot is for Union County School District 5 seat, currently held by Wayne Mahon.

To legally run for and serve on the school board, 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.

The county school district has five trustees, all elected by the public living in the school district 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 David Rainey, Jill Shaw, Barbara Washington, Mark Garrett and Ren Nelson.

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