School board election set May 18

The Rogers, Fayetteville and Gravette school districts will see races for school board seats this spring.

The one-week filing period for the May 18 elections ended at noon Monday with 25 people declaring their candidacy for 25 school board seats up for election in Benton and Washington counties. Four of those seats drew no candidates.

There will be two races for the Fayetteville School Board.

Nika Waitsman, board president, is going for a second full term in her Zone 1 seat against challenger Miriam Smith. Megan Hurley, board vice president, is also hoping to retain her at-large seat for a second term against challenger Elisabeth Beasley.

In Rogers, Suzanne Spivey and Ashley Pledger — who used to work together at Heritage High School — will square off for the right to represent Zone 3 for the four years remaining on the current term. The board appointed Spivey to the seat last year after nobody filed to run for the position.

Spivey retired as a teacher from Heritage in 2011. Pledger worked at Heritage as a library media specialist from 2008 until 2019, when she left to take the same position at Siloam Springs High School.

The Rogers board’s Zone 3 covers a portion of the district east of downtown and south of Beaver Lake. Rogers also had two at-large seats up for election. Incumbents Mitch Lockhart and Nathan Gairhan were the only ones who filed to run. Gairhan is the board’s president.

The only other race in Northwest Arkansas this spring is in Gravette, where Melanie Nichols is challenging incumbent Hope Duke for the Position 5 seat. Duke is seeking her second term.

Elsewhere, in Springdale, the only board seat up for election this year was Zone 1. Incumbent Kevin Ownbey is the only person running for it. He’s finishing his second term on the board.

Four of the five seats on the Decatur School Board were available this year, but no one’s name will be on the ballot. Incumbents Kevin Smith and Ike Owens registered as write-in candidates for their respective seats.

The Pea Ridge and Prairie Grove districts also had seats for which nobody filed to run. Board members will have to appoint someone to those vacant seats once the election is over; the appointees may serve until at least next year, when they will have to stand for election to retain their seats.

All but one of Northwest Arkansas’ 15 school districts decided to hold their board elections in May this year. Bentonville is the only district in the region holding its election in November. The filing period for that election is in August.

Arkansas law gives school districts the choice of holding their regular annual school board elections in the spring or early November.

All candidates who win their elections receive fiveyear terms, unless they are running to fill an unexpired term. Such situations exist when board members resign before their terms run out.

All school board positions are unpaid.