New school board in place in Bentonville

BENTONVILLE — Four new School Board members were sworn in Tuesday night.

Tatum Aicklen, Joel Dunning, Becky Guthrie and Jeremy Farmer are the new board members.

Aicklen and Farmer won in runoff elections held Dec. 6.

Five Bentonville School Board seats were up for election this year. A total of 12 people ran for the five seats, with at least two running for each seat.

On Nov. 8, Dunning was elected to the Zone 1 seat, Jennifer Faddis won the Zone 2 seat and Guthrie won the Zone 4 seat.

The elections for Zones 3 and 5 both featured three candidates; runoffs were required because no candidate received more than 50% of the vote in either of those races.

Farmer in Zone 3 and Aicklen in Zone 5 were in their first bids for a political office in the election.

In other board action Tuesday night, Kelly Carlson was elected board president and Willie Cowgur will serve as vice president. Faddis was elected secretary.

The 2023-24 school calendar also was approved 7-0 at the meeting. If the Arkansas Legislature determine schools can start earlier in the summer, district officials will revisit the calendar for 2023, according to a tweet from the district.

The 2023-24 school year will start Aug. 23, according to district documents.

Also Tuesday, board members drew a term length ranging from one to five years so their terms will be staggered. Board members normally serve five-year terms.

Faddis drew the two-year term, Aicklen and Farmer received the three-year terms, Dunning and Cowgur got the four-year terms and Guthrie and Carlson the five-year terms, according to the district.

School board positions are nonpartisan and unpaid in Arkansas.