Nearly two dozen file to run for NWA school board seats Benton County Sheriff’s Office
NORTHWEST ARKANSAS — One Northwest Arkansas school district’s board drew no candidates despite having four of its five seats available during the recent filing period for 2020 elections.
Steven Watkins, Decatur’s superintendent, said each current board member intends to continue serving past the March election date.
Three of those members whose seats were available qualify as “holdovers” who will automatically retain their positions. A member can serve as a holdover for up to one full term after the one to which elected if no one else files to run for the seat each year.
“The only way they could get out of being a board member is if they resigned,” Watkins said.
The board would need to reappoint one member, Karen Davis, next year because she was not previously elected. She was appointed to the Zone 1 position in 2018 and reappointed earlier this year, Watkins said.
The one-week filing period ended Tuesday with 22 candidates running for 21 seats in school districts in Benton and Washington counties.
Fayetteville will have two races and Springdale will have one in the school board elections March 3. Smaller school districts including Farmington, Gravette and Pea Ridge each will have one race to decide.
Six seats, including the four in Decatur, drew no candidates at all. The others were Zone 3 in Rogers and Position 3 in Elkins.
Local school boards had a choice of having elections next year in conjunction with the preferential primaries in March or the general election in November. Bentonville and Prairie Grove were the only Northwest Arkansas districts that chose November; their filing periods will be next summer.
While some seats represent specific zones within a district, other seats are at-large and thus represent the entire district. Candidates must be qualified voters and live in the district or zone for which they’re running. Board zone maps can be found on each school district’s website.
Terms for all board members are five years unless candidates are running to complete an unexpired term.
Decatur, with about 530 students, is the smallest district in Northwest Arkansas. The district has 1,555 registered voters, according to the Benton County clerk’s office.
Decatur had three positions available during the last election cycle this past spring; Ike Owens, an incumbent, was the only person who filed, and that was as a write-in candidate.
Watkins, however, is happy with the board he has.
“It’s a really good board. They really support the schools. They do a lot of hard work for very little recognition,” he said.
Tony Prothro, executive director of the Arkansas School Boards Association, said the Decatur situation is highly unusual. The difficulty of drawing candidates for board seats varies from district to district.
“Even in some smaller districts, there will be multiple candidates for one position. So it’s based on circumstances in those communities,” Prothro said.
School board service is unpaid and requires those elected to their positions to get a certain amount of training, so it is a significant time commitment, he said.
“You have to have a heart for kids and be ready to make policy decisions at the top level,” Prothro said. “We always encourage people who have that type of a mindset to run for local school boards.”
In Gravette, there will be a race for the Position 4 seat between incumbent Ty Russell and Tim Craig. Russell was appointed to the seat a few years ago and is seeking his first full term.
• Brydee Jean Violet Carrier, 39, of 12830 Harmon Road in Gravette, was arrested Friday in connection with interference with custody. Carrier was being held Friday in the Benton County Jail with no bond set.