School board hopefuls live to run another day
Cheryl Poole wasn’t surprised by her showing in Tuesday night’s school board election. Incumbent Justin Ellis was. Poole, a retired teacher knocked on between 800 and 900 doors while campaigning for the District 1 seat against attorney Charles Henry and construction company executive Nathan Shirley.
“I worked very hard on this campaign and I have the education background,” she said Wednesday. It became my fulltime job. I don’t know how the two men handled a job and the campaign.”
Henry, with 37.62 percent of 1,757 votes cast, edged Poole (35.17 percent) to force an April 4 runoff election.
“I worked hard. I campaigned to make sure people knew who I was and what my plan was to improve the quality of education for all Oklahoma City Public Schools children,” Henry said. “I need to continue to let people know my message
and my plan.”
Also facing a runoff are Stanley Hupfeld and Paula Lewis for chairman and Rebecca Budd and Nick Singer for the District 2 seat occupied by Ellis, who lost his reelection bid.
No candidate in each of the three races received more than half the votes. The top two vote-getters move on to the runoff.
Budd, a retired consultant who coordinates the volunteer program at Martin Luther King Elementary School, pulled in 36.66 percent of 2,234 votes compared to 33.35 percent for Singer, a legislative organizer.
She said she worked tirelessly to connect with voters.
“Never underestimate how much work a campaign takes,” she said. “It’s nonstop from the minute you file. It’s knocking on doors. It’s answering phone calls.
“It really comes down to meeting a voter, convincing them and then getting them to show up at the polls.”
Singer said he knocked on 1,700 doors in his quest to win election.
“We beat an incumbent who had a base and some name recognition and had been doing the work for four years,” he said.
“We did the hard work and got real close to a well-funded challenger.”
Ellis, meanwhile, expressed surprise at the outcome of Tuesday’s election.
“It’s a tough time right now,” he said. “It’s a tough time with the budget cuts and the issues that Oklahoma City Public Schools faces.
“I’m proud of what we’ve accomplished in the last four years. There’s been a lot of positive things that I can hang my hat up on and say ‘we did a good job.’”