Incumbents Frank Riney III and Todd Anderson were both reelected to the Daviess County Public Schools Board of Education, while Dale Stewart retained his seat in an unopposed race.
A longtime board member, Riney claimed 4,201 votes (70%) in the 4th District race to easily beat challenger Sharon Castle, who took 1,829 votes (30%).
“It’s always humbling when your constituents vote on what you’ve done in the past,” Riney said. “I’m appreciative of that support. I’m looking forward to continuing to move forward.”
While a top priority is getting students and teachers back in school, Riney said he’s also got long-term plans that don’t revolve around the pandemic.
“We have some students on this side of the county that are being bused out of the district over to College View from the Audubon area,” he said. “One of my long-term goals is to work out something to where we can get those students back on this side of the county. When you take kids out of your area in the district, it makes it more difficult for parents to be involved and increases travel time.”
In the 3rd District race, Anderson pulled in 3,666 votes (54%) to hold off challenger Dianne Burns Mackey, who received 3,063 votes (46%).
“It’s an honor and I’m very thankful that the people of District 3 felt compelled to reelect me,” Anderson said. “We’ve got a lot accomplished in the last four years. We’ve made a lot of headway with our new schools and safety for our children.”
Like Riney, Anderson is focused on opening schools back up as much as possible but also has a long-term vision. Anderson will sit on the Local Planning Committee, which will develop a District Facilities Plan to recommend capital construction and renovation projects that the school district may undertake.
“Our long-term planning committee will start meeting pretty soon,” he said. “We’ll put together a long-range plan that will be submitted to the state. Any major projects that we do has to be on that plan, so it’s very detailed and time-consuming. We make sure that we’re spending as appropriately as we can.”
Stewart ran unopposed for the second consecutive term in the 5th District, and he garnered 4,447 votes.
“I just appreciate my constituents that have the faith and confidence that I’ll go out and work hard to try to do what’s best for the school system,” he said. “The No. 1 issue right now is getting our kids and staff back in school safely. That goes beyond anything else. For long range, we want to continue to work on building the Daviess County Middle School and also finish the expansion at Apollo High School.”
