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Four state school board incumbents have cleared the first hurdle toward re-election in a selection process that's been widely criticized for taking choice out of the public's hands.
Some incumbents, however, just barely made the cut.
A governor-appointed nominating committee interviewed 35 of the 59 candidates vying for nine state school board seats on Monday. Committee members then, as directed by law, voted for at least three candidates for each seat to forward to the governor. The governor chooses two candidates for each seat to appear on the November ballot.
The committee will interview and vote on the remaining candidates and seats Tuesday. But so far, each incumbent interviewed has garnered enough votes to be considered by the governor.
That hasn't always been the case. In 2010, incumbent Denis Morrill was ousted by the committee; Morrill later sued the committee and others, saying the process was illegal and unconstitutional. Two years before that, three incumbents, including the then-state school board chairman, didn't make it on the ballot because of how the committee voted.
Half of the 12-member committee represents groups within education: parents, teachers, local school boards, school administrators, charter schools and higher education. The other half represents businesses/industries: mining/manufacturing, technology, construction, agriculture, finance and transportation.
In addition to Monday's interviews, the committee also posed written questions to candidates in recent weeks. They asked several broad questions as well as 12 specific yes/no questions in writing before the Monday interviews.
Those yes/no questions included: "Do you think sex education should be taught in schools?" "Do you support the Utah Core Curriculum Standards?" and "Do you support students having the option to choose the providers for online courses?"
"I think because we were able to gather all of this information, everyone's had a chance to do their homework and see, 'These people line up best with the interests that I have and the philosophy that I'm looking at,' " said committee chairman Tom Bingham, president of the Utah Manufacturers Association and chairman of the Utah College of Applied Technology Board.
JoDee Sundberg, a committee member and Alpine District board member, said after the votes Monday she was "pleased that so far the incumbents have gone through, and I think this is a good selection of candidates for the governor to choose from."
Incumbents chosen to move on to the governor Monday were Dave Crandall, Leslie Brooks Castle, Dave L. Thomas and C. Mark Openshaw. Thomas and Castle nearly didn't make it into the top three for their districts. Thomas was the third-highest vote-getter in his district, by a wide margin, and Castle twice tied with two others for second-highest vote in her district.
Castle said she was surprised at the three-way tie in her race. In that case, the committee was unable to break the tie and decided to forward four names to the governor. Castle said the process is flawed.
"Our constituents should not be this committee," Castle said. "Our constituents should not be the governor. It should be the people in our districts."
Many have long criticized the process, and lawmakers have attempted to change it a number of times, but state leaders have been unable to agree on whether board members should be selected in partisan or nonpartisan elections.
Ally Isom, a spokeswoman for the governor, said Monday that Herbert had not yet decided how he would select the two candidates to appear on the ballot for each seat.
And the nominees are ...
A governor-appointed nominating committee voted Monday to forward the following state school board candidates to the governor for ballot consideration. The remaining candidates will be chosen Tuesday:
District 13 • C. Mark Openshaw (incumbent), co-founder and president of AirComUSA, a telecommunications business; Ken Parkinson, attorney and shareholder at Howard, Lewis & Petersen, P.C., and board member of Freedom Academy charter school; Kimberlie Kehrer, Alpine District teacher.
District 4 • Bruce Davis, Weber State University vice provost and dean of Continuing Education, board member of Northern Utah Academy for Math, Engineering and Science charter school; Tom Koehler, Good Foundations Academy charter school founder and board chairman, board member of Northern Utah Academy for Math, Engineering and Science charter school; Dave L. Thomas (incumbent), chief civil deputy Summit County attorney, South Weber City Council.
District 7 • Carlton A. Getz, electrical engineer, founder and managing director of Winter Harbor Advisors, LLC and founder and president of Getz & Associates, Inc.; Leslie Brooks Castle (incumbent), nurse; Elizabeth Krug, principal consultant and owner of EK Tax Consulting, home educator; Penny B. Maranville, part-time instructor at American Preparatory Academy charter school.
District 10 • Dave Crandall (incumbent), chairman of Summit Academy charter school board, consultant and project manager with Spring2 Technologies; Deborah Swensen, principal at Hawthorn Academy charter school, adjunct faculty member at Argosy University; Nina Marie Welker, adjunct faculty member at Salt Lake Community College, bookkeeper at Studio Techniques Dance.
District 11 • Jefferson Moss, vice president/investment specialist at Key Private Bank; Sergio X. Vasquez, manager of laboratory operations at Numira Biosciences and application development scientist/technical director; Greta Betts, Hawthorn Academy charter school board president.